Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Project Suburban: Part Deux

Another green Schwinn Suburban has made it's way into my garage. However this time I'm not the instigator. My Mom retired from work about a year ago and she's been saying for a while that she would like to be able to ride her bike to the library. Like most people, she's also got a list of reasons why she can't ride to the library. Last week Nancy went out to lunch with mom and the subject of the bike came up again. Never one to accept excuses Nancy had the car backed out of the garage and they had the bike down from the rafters before Mom knew what hit her. They loaded it in the back of our Jetta and it's now in my garage. I took a few before pictures, but honestly this bike's in a whole lot better shape than Dad's was when I started it. The serial number on this one indicates that it was manufactured in December of 1971. I thought for sure that this bike was newer than Dad's, but I guess that shows what I know.







But since I won't be riding this, I think I might do a little more than just clean it up. I'm going to look into doing some upgrading while I'm at it. Should be another fun project.

7 comments:

The Donut Guy said...

Dig those handlebars...

Jim Thill said...

I recommend a King headset and some Ti bolts to hold those spoke reflectors on.

brother yam said...

...and a carbon front fork...

Apertome said...

Sweet bike -- looks like fun! You've already got some good suggestions for upgrades. Personally I'd find a way to fit disc brakes on that sucker, those steel rims are slippery!

Frostbike said...

Phil Wood hubs and BB as well, I suppose?

rigtenzin said...

Alloy rims and new brake pads. Most of us can't apply enough force to make the chrome rims stop with those old, hard pads.

Smudgemo said...

For the love of Pete, at least put some cable end-caps on the cables.

Then the King headset, but do the ti version. It's your mom after all...