beng1

Hello, I pulled a crank out of a Schwinn Breeze single-speed bike and it looks to be 165mm from the centers of the bottom bracket and pedals. Does anyone know if Schwinn made a variety of crank arm lengths? I have three one-piece cranks out of non-Schwinn bikes and they all measure the same, about 6.5", or 165mm. Seems to be an industry standard. Since I am tall and put a lot of miles on a bike with a one-piece crank, I thought it might be nice to try a longer crank. If one is not easily available, I will just cut a few spare cranks up and weld them together to make a 170-180mm length.

Darth Lefty 

Yes, but it's 6 1/2 inches. Not metric! Just like a "559 mm" rim is 22 inch diameter so a 2 inch tall balloon tire comes out 26 inches. Unlike "Schwinn Approved" lightweight stuff with Euro and Taiwan components, this was a US part, and cruisers were for adolescents.

There are bigger sizes. 180 is probably hard to find, though. Try to find one that's chromoly. There are Walmart-quality ones on Amazon that I'm sure would be easy to weld but then what do you have when you are done?

There are also tubular steel arms that go in the same bottom bracket shell

https://www.amazon.com/Alta-Chromoly.../dp/B07MLHFY8X

and conversion kits to put a threaded bottom bracket in the 1-piece shell

https://www.amazon.com/Truvativ-00-6.../dp/B000VT550K

Velo Mule

The one from a Schwinn Varsity, Continental or Suburban is longer. This on has a diamond cross-section crank. I don't know exactly how long, but it is longer. @Vintage Schwinn might know.

Maytag

Looking over my Schwinn bike collection, it appears that cranks from female bicycles measure 6.5inch ( I have Suburbans, Continentals, Collegiate, Breesze) all male versions have a 7" crank. So you should be able to pick up any old Schwinn for cheap and try it out

beng1

That is amazing they would put that long a crank arm into those bikes, that is like 177 or 178mm. Most all road bikes don't come with anything longer than 170mm, a lot of mountain-bikes came with 175s, the only time I ever saw anything longer than 175 was a set of 180mm Dura-Ace cranks on an old Motobecane I raced with a long time ago. But I hope that is true, that they are that long. My old man who is 85 has a Continental hanging in his barn, but it is a very small framed bike for a short person, and again, that makes it very surprising it would have cranks longer than 6.5".

sd5782 

I just measured 2 of my 1973 Schwinn Super Sports, as I knew they were nowhere near 7 inches. 6 5/8” as close as I could get. That is the diamond shaped arm. That comes out to a bit over 168mm.

machinist42

Measured my '64 and '73 "24 inch" Super Sport's cranks, and both are 6 3/4" Center to Center, so ~172 mm.

beng1

That makes sense. I guess I will be cutting some cranks up and welding them into a 175-180 length. One thing I did notice is that the Schwinn cranks are narrower than the cranks I have from other USA brands, so that may give some advantage as long as it will clear the frame of a non-Schwinn bike.

Velo Mule

There were longer one piece cranks made for BMX back in the day. Some seem to still be available. I did a quick search and came up with these at 175mm and chrome moly.

Chrome moly one piece crank 175mm

You will also need new cones and a nut with this crank because the thread pitch is different from Schwinn.

beng1

Yes, Schwinn had a different thread than the other USA manufacturers, and a lot of newer BMX cranks are probably metric and some of them have the peg to drive the sprocket in a different place and may even need metric bearings or something else weird, so since I went to school for and worked as a welder, and have a pile of old USA made cranks laying around, so far cutting and welding parts back together does not seem like much of a hassle to me, in fact it looks like it might be fun. Not as much fun as bolting in a set and riding, but still some sort of fun.

Glennfordx4

Since I live in a Beach Cruiser area and build 20 to 30 bikes a season I can say that 175 one piece cranks are everywhere, I have had some 180's but they are not common. Any one piece crank will fit the Schwinn but you need the BB to go with them just because of the threading Schwinn used. BMX Cranks are where I would look for Cromo and 180's. While the bearings may differ it's just the count, 9 ball, 10 ball are most common.

Glenn