Schwinn update

I threw on some old 700C wheels with roughly 31cm wide tires (temp sizing wheels), put on Shimano clipless pedals and repacked the bearings on the axles and bottom bracket.



It is looking and riding better...

Seat and seat post finished

I finished the seat and seat post install yesterday.

First I drilled out the relief hole in the seat tube slot.



Widening the seat tube relief hole

Then I cleaned up the inside of the seat tube using a flex hone. I bought the hone from Jegs.com and it was about $8. It worked really well.

I also used a wire wheel to the seat post bindings as they had a bunch of surface rust. After that I sprayed it with some primer.

It is much shinier in there then the photo shows

 

A little primer to keep the rust a bay

 

When I put the new seat post in it was still too tight and it got a little scrapped up. I took a large screw driver and put it in to the slot and widened the gap a bit. That did the trick and it slid in no problem.

I cut a bit off of the new seat post and grinded down the edges and put a liberal coating of grease on it. Not that I am worried about weight on this project but I thought it would be fun to cut the seat post then clean the edges up.

I then put in an actual seat post binder bolt vs. the junk drawer bolt that was in there.

$5 seat post binder bolt

Here is the finished results.

I did 12 miles on it today when I rode to a friends house. I was very comfortable, much better than the old Schwinn/Viscount seat that was on it.

Seat & seat post

The first official upgrade is going to be my seat and seat post.

I would have liked to use the original seat post but it is only 200mm tall. Not tall enough for me. I bought a 300mm seat post in the right 26.4mm diameter. But before I put it in I want to clean out the seat tube. I was not sure why but the original seat post is gouged up pretty bad. I took a file to the edge of the seat tube to clean it up but I did not see anything that would have caused the scratches. I am going to use a flex hone to clean it out before I put the new post in.

Old post

I also noticed that the seat tube slot does not have much of a strain relief hole at the end of it. I am debating whether I drill one in before I do the honing. The hole usually reduces the occurrence of cracks from the base of the binder slot.

The seat I am going to use is a Specialized Toupe that I had on one of my other bikes. It's a great seat and very light. It might be a bit under padded for gravel but the top is thin and it flexes pretty good which makes it more comfortable than it looks.

And lastly I have to add a true binder bolt.