My 1964 Supersport, a work in progress.
07-26-22, 07:08 PM
#1
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My 1964 Supersport, a work in progress.
I had someone ask me to post a picture of my 1964 Schwinn Supersport. I've had this bike since I was 10, I'm 67 now. Im really surprised I was big enough to ride it when I got it.
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07-26-22, 07:11 PM
#2
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That bike is as old as me and maybe better shape.
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07-26-22, 07:25 PM
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This bike is beautiful. Thanks for posting.
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07-26-22, 11:54 PM
#4
blahblahblah chrome moly
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That bike looks so much better than my '73 SS! Nice job.
Mark B
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07-27-22, 06:02 AM
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I'm guessing that your parents did like most parents and got it sized on the large side because " he'll grow into it". That's what happened to my wife. When she was 13 she got a Schwinn Collegiate and 45 years later, it is still too big. After many years of storage in a damp barn, it does not look as nice as your Super Sport.
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07-27-22, 06:46 AM
#6
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Your parents were very generous to you when you were 10! I only received hand-me-down bikes from my older brother, who often only received hand-me-down bikes from our youngest uncles!
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07-27-22, 07:22 AM
#7
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Sweet!
Fairly rare bike. I've only seen a handful of other '64 models.
Back then in my neighborhood. The kids were lucky to get a Varsity. One "spoiled" kid got a Continental. Getting a Sierra or Super Sport was "beyond the pale"!
I had to wait an extra year before I got my Varsity in 1965.
Looks like the pivot on the rear derailleur body is locked up. It should be free to pivot from about 5:00 to about 7:00.
Yours looks locked into the 7:00 position.
Fairly rare bike. I've only seen a handful of other '64 models.
Back then in my neighborhood. The kids were lucky to get a Varsity. One "spoiled" kid got a Continental. Getting a Sierra or Super Sport was "beyond the pale"!
I had to wait an extra year before I got my Varsity in 1965.
Looks like the pivot on the rear derailleur body is locked up. It should be free to pivot from about 5:00 to about 7:00.
Yours looks locked into the 7:00 position.
07-27-22, 09:15 AM
#8
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Thread Starter
Sweet!
Fairly rare bike. I've only seen a handful of other '64 models.
Back then in my neighborhood. The kids were lucky to get a Varsity. One "spoiled" kid got a Continental. Getting a Sierra or Super Sport was "beyond the pale"!
I had to wait an extra year before I got my Varsity in 1965.
Looks like the pivot on the rear derailleur body is locked up. It should be free to pivot from about 5:00 to about 7:00.
Yours looks locked into the 7:00 position.
Fairly rare bike. I've only seen a handful of other '64 models.
Back then in my neighborhood. The kids were lucky to get a Varsity. One "spoiled" kid got a Continental. Getting a Sierra or Super Sport was "beyond the pale"!
I had to wait an extra year before I got my Varsity in 1965.
Looks like the pivot on the rear derailleur body is locked up. It should be free to pivot from about 5:00 to about 7:00.
Yours looks locked into the 7:00 position.
07-27-22, 09:19 AM
#9
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Thread Starter
Yes they were good to me. I treated my Supersport as a Sunday bike, my everyday bike was a Schwinn Stingray. I still have the Stingray but it's in bad shape. My father put it in an old leaky shed at the farm. I got it back when he sold the farm.
07-27-22, 09:40 AM
#10
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Super Cool Super Sport!!!
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07-27-22, 09:45 AM
#11
I don't know.
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beautiful color.
07-27-22, 09:59 AM
#12
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I have a 73 also. This 64 is quite a bit different than our later boom era models. Schwinn might have been gauging the market too and seeing how to outfit them early on. By the 73 boom era, they were probably trying to keep up, and parts interchangeably with the Varsity and Continental was fine as they probably sold everything. Nice bike from an interesting timeframe for Schwinn.
07-27-22, 10:29 AM
#13
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Look at the angle of the derailleur body in the attached photo of the demonstrator. It's canted forward to about the 5:00 position. The body is spring loaded at the pivot where it attaches to the "claw" that attaches the entire assemble to the bike frame at the dropout. This 5:00 cant is the normal position of the derailleur. It pivots backwards while gear shifts are being made, but then returns to this position.
Your derailleur body is stuck canted to the rear limit of about the 7:00 position.
I would take the derailleur loose from the "claw", make sure everything is lubricated in there, then reassemble. It's a putzy adjustment and may take you several tries to get it right where the lateral(side to side) slop is just taken out, but the body is still able to pivot back & forth from 5:00 to 7:00. You'll see how it works when you get it apart.
Edit: The pivot is not spring loaded. I guess it's just the chain tension that keeps the derailleur body canted forward.
Your derailleur body is stuck canted to the rear limit of about the 7:00 position.
I would take the derailleur loose from the "claw", make sure everything is lubricated in there, then reassemble. It's a putzy adjustment and may take you several tries to get it right where the lateral(side to side) slop is just taken out, but the body is still able to pivot back & forth from 5:00 to 7:00. You'll see how it works when you get it apart.
Edit: The pivot is not spring loaded. I guess it's just the chain tension that keeps the derailleur body canted forward.
Last edited by Sierra; 07-27-22 at 02:20 PM. Reason: Correct some wrong info
07-27-22, 11:18 AM
#14
framebuilder
My dad got me a blue 22" 1965 Super Sport just like yours for Christmas. I was a freshman in college. They cost just under $100. It replaced a 1963 $60 "Ascot Flyer" 10 speed made in Austria my dad bought at Western Auto. Most people considered $100 an insane amount of money for a bicycle back then. Just as a reminder, before the bike boom in 1970, good 10 speeds were rare in the US. Especially in the Midwest. When my cousin and I did a bicycle trip in Vermont and surrounding states in 1966, everyone thought we were just crazy college kids. My SS got stolen the last day of my senior year in college when everyone was leaving to go home for summer vacation. By that time it was just a campus commuter. I had already graduated to full Campy equipped bicycles.
And yes I realize I had really good parents.
And yes I realize I had really good parents.
07-27-22, 11:24 AM
#15
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My dad got me a blue 22" 1965 Super Sport just like yours for Christmas. I was a freshman in college. They cost just under $100. It replaced a 1963 $60 "Ascot Flyer" 10 speed made in Austria my dad bought at Western Auto. Most people considered $100 an insane amount of money for a bicycle back then. Just as a reminder, before the bike boom in 1970, good 10 speeds were rare in the US. Especially in the Midwest. When my cousin and I did a bicycle trip in Vermont and surrounding states in 1966, everyone thought we were just crazy college kids. My SS got stolen the last day of my senior year in college when everyone was leaving to go home for summer vacation. By that time it was just a campus commuter. I had already graduated to full Campy equipped bicycles.
And yes I realize I had really good parents.
And yes I realize I had really good parents.
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07-27-22, 04:42 PM
#16
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Later Supersports came with the long-cage model Allvit or Schwinn-Approved derailer to accomodate a 32T freewheel cog.
On the long-cage models, the mounting claw bracket featured a more-rearward positioning tang controlling the B-pivot angle, so the derailer swung more rearward and the guide pulley cleared the 4-tooth-bigger cog (the longer cage itself merely wrapped more chain).
When I adapted a 6s Uniglide freewheel with only 28T largest cog to my 1971 Supersport, I remember filing away at the claw bracket tensioning tang so as to improve shifting by letting the derailer swing forward, thus reducing the chain gap.
The OP's fabulous example shows the chrome fork, which became fashionably featured on many of the new-for-1963 Schwinns.
My own early-1963 Continental in the same Radiant Blue color looks to my eye much like the OP's Sprint-equipped Supersport, but for much-slacker frame angles, chromed-steel Rigida Chrolux rims and of course thinner frame tubes and seatpost. It's likely rougher up close than the OP's bike, shown below after sourcing it from Goodwill in 2006 or so and removing a lot of surface rust from all of it's chrome. I added clipless BMX pedals, axle wingnuts, lever hoods, and also the accessory VDO timer/clock which shows a mfg date from the same year. This is the very first old Schwinn road bike that I acquired and rode among spirited groups of riders, and which would become "a thing" for me going forward. I think I paid $99 for it after letting it sit at Goodwill for a day or two with no takers.
On the long-cage models, the mounting claw bracket featured a more-rearward positioning tang controlling the B-pivot angle, so the derailer swung more rearward and the guide pulley cleared the 4-tooth-bigger cog (the longer cage itself merely wrapped more chain).
When I adapted a 6s Uniglide freewheel with only 28T largest cog to my 1971 Supersport, I remember filing away at the claw bracket tensioning tang so as to improve shifting by letting the derailer swing forward, thus reducing the chain gap.
The OP's fabulous example shows the chrome fork, which became fashionably featured on many of the new-for-1963 Schwinns.
My own early-1963 Continental in the same Radiant Blue color looks to my eye much like the OP's Sprint-equipped Supersport, but for much-slacker frame angles, chromed-steel Rigida Chrolux rims and of course thinner frame tubes and seatpost. It's likely rougher up close than the OP's bike, shown below after sourcing it from Goodwill in 2006 or so and removing a lot of surface rust from all of it's chrome. I added clipless BMX pedals, axle wingnuts, lever hoods, and also the accessory VDO timer/clock which shows a mfg date from the same year. This is the very first old Schwinn road bike that I acquired and rode among spirited groups of riders, and which would become "a thing" for me going forward. I think I paid $99 for it after letting it sit at Goodwill for a day or two with no takers.
Last edited by dddd; 07-27-22 at 04:48 PM.
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07-28-22, 12:17 AM
#17
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Look at the angle of the derailleur body in the attached photo of the demonstrator. It's canted forward to about the 5:00 position. The body is spring loaded at the pivot where it attaches to the "claw" that attaches the entire assemble to the bike frame at the dropout. This 5:00 cant is the normal position of the derailleur. It pivots backwards while gear shifts are being made, but then returns to this position.
Your derailleur body is stuck canted to the rear limit of about the 7:00 position.
I would take the derailleur loose from the "claw", make sure everything is lubricated in there, then reassemble. It's a putzy adjustment and may take you several tries to get it right where the lateral(side to side) slop is just taken out, but the body is still able to pivot back & forth from 5:00 to 7:00. You'll see how it works when you get it apart.
Edit: The pivot is not spring loaded. I guess it's just the chain tension that keeps the derailleur body canted forward.
Your derailleur body is stuck canted to the rear limit of about the 7:00 position.
I would take the derailleur loose from the "claw", make sure everything is lubricated in there, then reassemble. It's a putzy adjustment and may take you several tries to get it right where the lateral(side to side) slop is just taken out, but the body is still able to pivot back & forth from 5:00 to 7:00. You'll see how it works when you get it apart.
Edit: The pivot is not spring loaded. I guess it's just the chain tension that keeps the derailleur body canted forward.
07-28-22, 12:19 AM
#18
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Look at the angle of the derailleur body in the attached photo of the demonstrator. It's canted forward to about the 5:00 position. The body is spring loaded at the pivot where it attaches to the "claw" that attaches the entire assemble to the bike frame at the dropout. This 5:00 cant is the normal position of the derailleur. It pivots backwards while gear shifts are being made, but then returns to this position.
Your derailleur body is stuck canted to the rear limit of about the 7:00 position.
I would take the derailleur loose from the "claw", make sure everything is lubricated in there, then reassemble. It's a putzy adjustment and may take you several tries to get it right where the lateral(side to side) slop is just taken out, but the body is still able to pivot back & forth from 5:00 to 7:00. You'll see how it works when you get it apart.
Edit: The pivot is not spring loaded. I guess it's just the chain tension that keeps the derailleur body canted forward.
Your derailleur body is stuck canted to the rear limit of about the 7:00 position.
I would take the derailleur loose from the "claw", make sure everything is lubricated in there, then reassemble. It's a putzy adjustment and may take you several tries to get it right where the lateral(side to side) slop is just taken out, but the body is still able to pivot back & forth from 5:00 to 7:00. You'll see how it works when you get it apart.
Edit: The pivot is not spring loaded. I guess it's just the chain tension that keeps the derailleur body canted forward.
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07-28-22, 05:15 AM
#19
Death fork? Naaaah!!
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You know it's going to be a good day when the stem and seatpost come right out.
(looking for a picture and not seeing it? Thank the Photobucket fiasco.PM me and I'll link it up.)
07-28-22, 11:53 AM
#21
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A "work in progress??" Looks like it's finished to me, and very nicely!
