Rico47

This past summer I purchased my first road bike, a '73 Schwinn Varsity that I have been building up since. I am new to working on bikes. The next component of my bike I would like to upgrade are my wheels. From a recommendation I found on this forum, I think ill get a pair of 27" Sun CR18 aluminum wheels. What cassette will go with these wheels? And how do I know what fits what? I am open to keeping my original cassette if thats possible, but also open to upgrading. Thanks!

DiabloScott

1. You are probably looking at wheels that were intended for this old bike, but you need to make sure because of hub width.
2. If I'm right, you'll have freewheel threads, and you'll need a freewheel, not a cassette.
3. Your other limitation will be how much of a freewheel your derailleur can handle... safe to say whatever's on your existing wheels would work in the same size.

So show us exactly which wheels you're looking at, check the tooth count in your existing freewheel, and then come back here for more advice.

Homebrew01

Measure the inside-to-inside distance between the rear frame dropouts, in millimeters. Probably about 120 mm
What size is the tire on the existing wheel ? A replacement wheel needs to fit with the brake reach.
Check if your replacement wheel uses freewheel or cassette.

capnjonny 

If you are going to keep everything stock you will probably be buying a 14-28 tooth freewheel. Make sure to get a hyper glide freewheel or copy with ramps as that will make your shifting much easier. They come in 5-8 speed for freewheels though anything over 5 will entail spreading your rear triangle. If you have a bike Co op close by go and ask if they have a Suntour rear derailleur you can buy. Something like an Ar or Ar x long cage. they should be inexpensive and are better than the original.
Suntour also makes an excelent stem shifter if you are going that route. It's called a power shifter and they also have one for down tube shifting. If I were you I would consider changing to upright bars , something like north roads, and getting a pair of sunrace friction thumbies. unless you are racing the upright bars are more comfortable and the thumb shifters are cheap and work great. no need to take your hands off the bars or look down to shift.

dddd

I believe that by 1973, Schwinn's frame spacing was 126mm, to accomodate Schwinn's choice of 5-speed freewheel having a retention ring just outboard of the smallest cog.

The French-made Schwinn rear derailers really struggle to shift over more than five cogs, even after the freewheel's lateral positioning has been fine-tuned.
It can shift six speeds, but to do that the derailer will need travel-increasing modification and a good choice of chain, freewheel and freewheel positioning.

A quick-release type of rear hub should have it's threaded axle shifted a few millimeters toward the driveside so as to have that end of the axle sticking past the locknut by a few mm more than the non-driveside end of the axle. This is to accommodate the derailer mounting claw hanger's 4-5mm thickness.
If this isn't done, then the quick release won't center over the outside faces of the dropouts, making wheel installation harder.

The front axle slots in the Varsity's fork tips are sized for only an 8mm axle, so some careful, slight work with a file is needed to get a normal 9mm quick-release front axle to fit.
Some of the Varsities used a retaining washer with a hat shape that fits into a more circular cutout at the base of each slot, which makes for a poor fit with a modern axle and no washers but is still seemingly very serviceable once the quick release is tightened properly.

Replacement quick-release hubs rarely have their bearings adjusted loosely enough to accommodate the shortening of the hollow axle as the quick release lever compresses it.
To prevent bearing damage and needless rotational drag, the bearing adjustment of any quick-release cone-bearing hub should feel slightly loose, but which isn't loose only after the quick release lever is secured (with the axle then being compressed end to end).

If a six-speed rear wheel is used on a Varsity, likely the French Schwinn derailer will struggle to reach inward for the largest cog on any 5sp or 6sp freewheel. This would usually be because the axle spacing has been designed to handle both 6sp and 7sp freewheel widths.
A re-spaced hub and re-dished rim will straighten things out and get a 5sp freewheel closer to the driveside dropout as on the original setup. Not an insignificant amount of work though, and if trying to use a 6sp freewheel, it's going to be necessary to modify the rear derailer to pull outward a good bit further than stock and with the outermost cog positioned just 3-4mm from the inside face of the dropout (which further requires trimming away the nut for the claw hanger bolt).

I prefer using 700c wheels on any Varsity build. Not only is the tire selection much broader, but the extremely high bottom bracket height of the Schwinn electro-forged road bikes is lowered 4mm when using 700c wheels. The Schwinn calipers allow enough pad adjustment for 700c wheels.
For brake pads on aluminum rims using the original, long-reaching and flexible Schwinn-Approved calipers, dual-compound Kool Stop brake "MTB" pads having much greater length and spherical positioning washers will really help the braking and especially the lever feel (not so mushy).

pastorbobnlnh 

A neighbor recently bought a set of 27" wheels (126mm rear spacing, aluminum rims, sealed bearing hubs, and decent QR skewers) for his early '70s Super Sport. IIRC, he spent about $125 $150 (shipped). I was impressed by the wheels, especially for the price.

I removed his original Schwinn Approved (Maillard) freewheel and serviced it for him and we moved it to the new wheel. Everything else is original on his SS, and he's pleased with the result. Shifting worked out fine with just a few adjustments to the RD. He even used the original chain.

I'll send him an email/text and see if I can find out where he purchased his wheels. Updated the price above and the wheels were an Amazon purchase.

My neighbor's Super Sport with new wheels

qcpmsame 

The alloy wheelset off of a parted out Supers Sport would provide a nice choice for better braking surfaces.

I got a set of complete wheels for the current SS project now underway, from eBay, seen several sets listed the last few times searching Schwinn vintage parts. You would need to do the work, detailed above, on the drops so the QR axles would fit properly. Or a Continental tube constructed front fork would allow the QR axle to fit easily, with its correctly sized drops. A slightly better ride would also result. Several listed on eBay recently, or watch here in the stickied threads for one, the ISO thread is your friend too.

If the Super Sport Maillard freewheel, with its 32 tooth big cog, were used along with a long cage Suntour RD, your low gear would be more climb friendly. It’s 5 cog design should fit your Varsity well. Definitely go with Suntour RD as suggested above regardless, the design and engineering are much better than the Huret made units.

AdventureManCO 

Other folks have already done what you are asking help with, so I'll just say welcome! Stick around and join in the fun!

Velo Mule

I may have been lucky. I was helping out a guy that had a side hustle scraping metals. In return for my help, I asked him to keep an eye out for bikes. He got me a Fuji Espree. I was able to use the wheels wand rear derailleur for my Schwinn Continental. The spoke protector even didn't look too out of place on an old Schwinn. This was a nice upgrade over the original wheels. I saved the Huret sourced Schwinn Approved rear derailleur, just in case I want to get closer to original. But the SunTour ARX from the Fuji works great.


It may be a good idea if you have a bike coop close to you to check with them. They may have a set a vintage wheels that can be just the thing for your Varsity. And also keep your eye out if you have a large garbage pick up day or transfer station.

John E

I had a ca. 1972 Varsity for a couple of years. Using SunTour downtube levers (with a shim to accommodate the undersized downtube), I was able to shift the stock Huret derailleur across a standard 14-28 6-speed freewheel. Yes, the rear triangle OLD was already 126mm.

sd5782 

The aluminum SS rims and other period Normandy hubs with the usual Weinmann rims are a great choice. The only caveat is the axle cones which don’t hold up too well over the years. (Insert French quality insults here). I used some on a Continental for my son and they are a fine upgrade. With all the Normandy hubs out there, it is surprising that cones aren’t readily available.

dddd

Using the original type, "bushed" chain, the rear derailer is better able to transmit it's lateral motion up to where the chain is engaging the cog teeth, so that shifting across a standard-spaced six-speed freewheel is possible without modifying the derailer.
And Huret did at some point list the Allvit as 6-speed rated.

It's worth noting that the "knee action" Allvit derailers aren't bad at having their guide pulley track the freewheel's conical/convex profile with little chain gap, but that is in the context of the much stiffer chains from the entire, long era of the Allvit's reign. Suntour derailers (even with their slanted parallelogram) are actually no better in this regard, but did feature b-tension adjustment for use with freewheels outside of the Allvit's narrower intended cog size range (the long-cage Allvit actually came with a different claw hanger which positioned the body more vertically, so as to clear 32 or perhaps 34t tooth largest cogs). The limited lateral travel of the Allvit might be the deal-breaker though with wider 6 or 7-speed freewheels that a typical Suntour derailer handles easily.

I'm quite fussy about using only modern chain for it's generally quieter and more-efficient transmission (using but scant lubrication no less) at greater chain-crossing angles, so I rule out using bushed chain on my own builds.
The narrow Sedisport is however much stiffer laterally than other bushingless chains, so might be a good choice when trying for six speeds on a Varsity using any Allvit derailer.
With ramped, HG-style cogs, who knows, perhaps even 7 speeds might work, especially if the freewheel is positioned a little closer to the dropout (any more and the derailer's outward swing needs modification to the linkage as shown in red below).
Later Schwinns from around 1974-on have a revised Allvit (bottom photo) with "bumper steel" cage guide that I recall required grinding away at the large head of the swaged cage pivot spindle to increase it's outward travel.

Using flexible, modern chain and Uniglide 6sp freewheel, my Varsity's (and Supersport's) Twin-Stik shift lever is maxed out on travel in both directions, it provides just enough throw and no more.