politicalgeek

My 78-79 Le Tour III is still sitting, partially stripped as I try to figure out what I want to do. So quick question: I know the fork has the stupid, Schwinn .833 fork sizing. Will the frame take a modern headset to allow a different fork? I think I have read you can do this, just can't seem to find the info again.

Yah, this build will probably involve some kitten maiming or death. Don't hate me.

RobbieTunes

Let the frantic mewing begin.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Its not a high-end schwinn...you can pretty much do anything to them without harming any kittens.


AFAIK the frame will take a normal ISO/English Headset, and you should be able to fit any 1" fork on to it. The reason for the .833 sizing is because Schwinn uses thicker steerer tube walls.

That said, Having the original fork always looks better and the trail is always correct for what the frame was built for and the schwinn headsets, while heavy are long-lasting and IME can be brought up to snuff simply by cleaning/replacing the bearings and repacking with grease

politicalgeek

Yeah, I know it's not too high end...still some get fanatical.

I think the big reason to change out is better options with bar height. When I had the bike assembled, my only option was Wald/Pyramid quill stem the was taller and was .833

Roll-Monroe-Co

There are a lot perfectly serviceable forged stems floating around out there that were made for those bikes. The parts bin at the bike co-op has several. What sort of extension & rise are you looking for?

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

if you don't want to go the whole hog of changing out the fork you could always do a Threaded-to-Threadless conversion. It goes into the steerer tube just like a regular Quill Stem but its got a threadless headset mount on the other end.



see, the wedge part goes in like a normal Quill, and the other end sticks out of the steerer and you put a threadless stem on it.

They make them in .833 for schwinns. I used one on my Schwinn Varsity to bring the bars up and its worked out very well for me.

Here's a pic of it in use on my bike....they're cheap...like 10 bux.

Bluetrane2028

Where the heck did you find that quill adapter for your varsity?

I did many searches and came up empty, and I don't really want to mill a standard one down.

Also unrelated, anyone know if these come for French sizes? Again, would like to avoid paying a machine shop...

politicalgeek

Thanks for the different options, I'll have to check every thing out and see what I want to do.

Roll-don't know what I want, per se. Need to figure that out. I like the idea of swapping headsets and having a greater number of options than random finds in the co-op. Really like the height of the mountain bike set up I have now.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

eBay.

its made by Profile or Pyramid or Problem Solvers or something starting with a P.

they're also listed as 21.1mm sometimes.

Scooper

Because the threadless adapters are cylindrical, it's easy to shave 22.2mm adapters to 21.1mm on a lathe.

A local machine shop charged me $20 to turn down a Velo-Orange threadless adapter to 21.1mm.

Left to right: original 21.1 (.833) quill stem, modified V-O adapter (21.1) with threadless stem, unmodified V-O adapter (22.2)...



Installed on my Super Sport (fork steerer takes .833" stem):

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

...theres something really cool about a souped up Schwinn.