What's New

Well not too much new to report on the Schwinn. I have been riding a good deal on the bike in it's current state. For the small amount of $$$ I have spent on it, it rides really good and I have not had any major breakdowns. I did recently kill each tube when I over inflated the tires to 80 PSI (vs. the max marked pressure of 70 PSI). Over the course of two days both tubes failed at the valve. When I changed them the tubes looked at least 15 years old and were a good deal thicker and heavier than the ones that replaced them. So my ride is now lighter.

With a little mud

Slightly cleaner and with the back pannier on

The next upgrade is going to be the drive train. I have two complaints with the stem mounted shifters.

1. They are too close to my knees when I am out of the saddle.
2. They keep losing tension and every now and then will phantom shift down a gear.

I am going to convert the bike to a 1 X 10 using one of the new Shimano clutch derailleurs, a narrow wide front chain ring and a Gevenalle (Retroshift) brake lever mounted shifter. That will give me me 10 gears that are comparable to what I have now. Currently I have the original 6 speed rear and two chain-rings up front. The original gearing has a gear ratio that overlaps so really it is only an 11 speed. I am going to gear it a bit lower so I can climb and explore off road a bit more. I will most likely get a new 104 BCD mountain bike crank set when I do the upgrade. I would like a through axle to make the cranks lighter and stronger and the 104 BDC narrow wide chain rings area about half the price of a 5 bolt version narrow wide chain ring. The upgrade gets to be a bit more detailed as I will need at least a new rear wheel to fit a 10 speed cassette onto. Especially more detailed since I am thinking about building the wheel myself. more to come on that...

Old vs. New Gear Ratios

The new drivetrain I am planning is a 1x10 that will give me 10 total gears. The drivetrain I am replacing is a 2x6 that provides 12 gears. However, I calculated out the gear ratio for each combination and found that there were some overlaps. To my surprise I only have 9 unique gear combinations inthe current   drivetrain. I will get more gear combinations with the 1x10.

Here is the current 2x6 gearing using "gain ratio". The yellow items are the overlapping gears showing 9 actual gear combinations. I am using 46T and 36T front rings with a 14-28 six-speed freewheel.

Here  is the 1x10 set up. There are 10 gears with a higher and lower gear combo than the old setup. I will use a 39T chain ring and a 11-36 cassette.