Schwinn Suburban Conversion

This bike was rescued from the trash bin in excellent condition. It had all original "Schwinn Approved" parts including what I think were the original tires.

On the way home it suffered an unfortunate accident when it came out of my bike rack on the freeway on ramp. The fork was damaged beyond repair and the chrome monstrosity you see in the pictures is holding it's place until I can find a real replacement.

I did a little research and found the serial number to indicate that this Chicago Schwinn was built in April of 1972.

While the bike looked great, it did not perform very well. The first upgrade was a set of new OEM tires. I found even with new tires the 27 inch wheels were questionable at best. The tires could not handle high pressure and would separate from the rim. I was beginning to see why this bike might have been given up on.

I decided that this bike had great character and history, and I wanted to make it run strong again. The first step would be a new wheel set that would keep it looking as original as possible.

I went straight to NYCbikes.com for the Weinmann SP17 three speed wheel set. I picked up a Nexus shifter, a cruiser hearts chain ring (for my girlfriend), and got to work making the bike lighter, faster, and easier to enjoy.

Some Schwinn die-hards will no doubt be offended by what I did here, but keep in mind that Suburbans were not high quality bikes to begin with, and I rescued this one from the dump.