daveornee wrote:
I have a friend who has an old Schwinn Collegiate. He wants to ride
it
again after leaving it hang in the garage for decades. The gum
wall
tires have degraded and most of the residue has stuck itself to the
inside and outside walls of the rims. I tried cleaning it off with
mineral spirits and scraping it with a plastic scraper. After an
hour's work the front rim was clean enough to accept a new front
tire.
What ideas do you have to save some time/work in getting the rear
rim
nice and clean without damaging the chrome of the steel Schwinn
rim?


landotter wrote:
Steel wool soap pads work fine, as chrome is pretty hard. That said,
the best thing to do would be to re-rim with alloy rims and some
nice
tires. I've mentioned way too many times how pleased I am with the
Alex X404s shod with Vittoria Zaffiro 27x1 1/4 tires on my Sprite,
probably because I ride it in flip flops a lot this time of year,
but
I'll mention it again. Only about $50 to do the switch, and it'll
brake great and ride wonderfully. This of course depends on the
inside
diameter of the rim being a close enough match. Once thing I
especially like about the profile of the X404 is that it has a bit
of
a Westwood rim style, a bit of an obscure homage to those geeks in
the
know.

A Muzi Wrote:
Collegiates are EA1 (597mm) not 27-inch

daveornee wrote:
I thought it was BSD 597 too, but after a second trip to the local
bicycle shop that sells tires for older Schwinn, I found out they are
630 BSD on this Collegiate. I have a Collegiate of about the same
vintage (mine has chrome fenders) that is 597 BSD. My friend's
Collegiate has matching green fenders, rim wall generator, front/rear
light, but his rims are 630 BSD and 27" tires fit perfectly.
I wish his Collegiate were worth more, but I will see what he does with
it. He is recovering from his 3rd heart surgery. He thinks that
bicycle riding will extend the qualtiy of life. I want to encourage
him without raising to many expectations or spending too much more time
and money. $44 for new tires and tubes was sticker shock for him.
I was hoping someone would tell me that they used fingernail polish
rmover (Acetone) or "Goo-Gone" and the goop came off in a minute
without scratching anything.. Oh well, so much for those hopes.'
We tried the steel wool and Brillo Pads too, but didn't see much
happening to the stuborn goo.... but the chrome looked brighter.

Hmmm. Mystery bike, eh?
Generally Suburbans are 27-inch and painted mudguards. Collegiate EA1
with chromed mudguards. What year is it?

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971