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Beat to the brink Schwinn Passage frame as a blank canvas?

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Beat to the brink Schwinn Passage frame as a blank canvas?

Old 09-22-22, 09:57 AM
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bark_eater 
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Beat to the brink Schwinn Passage frame as a blank canvas?

Well I got another "bargain". Its a 1986 Schwinn Passage, and I only paid 5% of what the seller assured me what "these go for".............

I was going to start a thread on "Bikes we paid too much for", but just went ahead and started breaking it down. Almost every thing that could go wrong, went wrong with this bike, but when the dust settled I was left with a forkless rusty frame with a misaligned rear end and a bent derailleur hanger.

With a Columbus Tenax sticker though...

I'm entertaining trying to "repair" the original fork, but its a Tange production fork and I have a similar one from a Bridgestone T-500 that should fit. That ones spec'ed at 60mm of rake so the trail would be a little lower. With the rust and the mismatched fork, this bike is going to need powder coating once the rear end is straightened out and probably spread to 128mm.

So its going to require a certain investment of time and money to make this a bike again. My question is whether the bike is unique enough, what will it be good at and how would any of you build this bike up?

I'm kind of fixated on the "randoneuring" potential of all the old bikes that end up in my attic. I have other full blown touring bikes so I'm inclined to envision a 700c cantilever Randonneuse. I weigh a solid 250lbs right now so I suspect the bike won't be to stiff.

Or perhaps something a little more Walnut Creek? Swept bars, basket and bags?

Last edited by bark_eater; 09-22-22 at 10:14 AM.
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Old 09-22-22, 10:45 AM
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“…something a little more Walnut Creek…” Good one.

I’ve only pottered around on my Tenax Super Le Tour but I like it quite a lot. I think yours would make a dandy tourer.
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Old 09-22-22, 11:08 AM
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It's rough enough that I'd recommend building it up as-is to your wildest dreams. Cold-set and all.

Don't paint it, try out the build first. Find out if said wild dream is everything you wanted it to be. If it is, do a teardown, send it off for paint, and reassemble.

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Old 09-22-22, 02:55 PM
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If you are going to use a 700 wheelset then you might want to consider getting the canti bosses repositioned wider and lower to allow easier brake setup. I tried several sets of cantis but finally had the posts repositioned and it makes things so much better.

I commuted on mine for a couple of years when I had indoor parking for the bike at work.

By the way i started riding mine at 300ish pounds still a very stiff and responsive ride, you'll love it. I use the bottle mount under the downtube for a tire kit including patch kit, tube, and levers in an old small peanut butter jar.
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Old 09-22-22, 03:19 PM
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Originally Posted by Rotten
If you are going to use a 700 wheelset then you might want to consider getting the canti bosses repositioned wider and lower to allow easier brake setup. I tried several sets of cantis but finally had the posts repositioned and it makes things so much better.
Did you see any difference between setting of the original front and rear brakes with 700c? I was thinking if I has the fork raked out to 70mm from 50 mm I might reduce the brake height the 4mm difference between 27" and 700c.
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Old 09-22-22, 09:50 PM
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Originally Posted by bark_eater
Did you see any difference between setting of the original front and rear brakes with 700c? I was thinking if I has the fork raked out to 70mm from 50 mm I might reduce the brake height the 4mm difference between 27" and 700c.
It isn't so much the height of the canti mounts or the built in adjustability of the brakes themselves but the narrowness of mounts combined with the different styles of canti brakes. If you have a set of 700 wheels to try it with it will help you make the decision and see what I'm talking about. My wife has a Shogun 500 touring bike that is almost identical to my passage in everything but size including the narrow canti mounts and I have seriously considered getting a custom 27" 11 speed wheelset for just to eliminate the headache of flat fixes, tire changes, routine maintenance.

https://velo-orange.blogspot.com/201...izing-psa.html
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Old 09-23-22, 04:25 AM
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Originally Posted by Rotten
It isn't so much the height of the canti mounts or the built in adjustability of the brakes themselves but the narrowness of mounts combined with the different styles of canti brakes.
I've got a set of the Dia-Compe 981 brakes with a height adjustment slot. I think they where "peak technology" for narrow spaced cantilevers.
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Old 09-23-22, 05:19 AM
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Where’s the rust?




unless you’ve had one of these before, build and ride before refinishing.

what do the original wheels look like?
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Old 09-23-22, 06:08 AM
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Originally Posted by Bianchigirll
Where’s the rust?

unless you’ve had one of these before, build and ride before refinishing.

what do the original wheels look like?
A large patch of the downtube has had all the paint scraped off and there's rust started everywhere on the bike. The fork had more visible rust but is suspect because of a dent and scored threads. The wheels are rough with rusty spokes and the rear wheel is a mismatch replacement as is the rear derailleur that was mounted on a bent hanger....

Last edited by bark_eater; 09-23-22 at 06:13 AM.
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