67 Schwinn Collegiate

The school where we work hosts an annual bike rodeo just to check out the bikes that the kids ride all over campus – you know, just to make sure they have brakes and things like this. So a couple of weeks ago I walked over to the rodeo with our girls and spotted this beauty. People tend to drop bikes off at the rodeo that they don’t want anymore in hopes that some child without a bike will pick it out and give it a second chance. I’m no genius but I have been here long enough to know that no kid was going to want this bike – so I asked for it and the powers that be gave it to me.

All it needed was a bit of air in the tires and I was riding this puppy all over campus. I’ve always dreamed of restoring an older bike like this and those visions were no different as I was riding my new Collegiate in the crisp September air. On Monday we had a Labor Day picnic and I rode the bike there. A few days later I received this letter via intracampus mail. I love it. The mystery, the suspense, the speedometer.

I decided that the restoration project would be expedited a bit after that. It was the least I could do for the mystery boy that unknowingly handed his most prized childhood possesion over to me. While I realize that, according to the author, I have no debt to repay, I will use this site to chronicle the restoration process. I started a couple of days ago by doing some research and reading and by taking the bike completely apart.

So consider this the first entry of many about the rebirth of an old bike with lots of life. The resarch told me that the bike was born in early January (approx. January 3) 1967. The serial number is AC01586. I realize that is after the author says the boy received the bike, but the Schwinn museum tells me the bike didn’t roll off the line until January, ’66. The color is Campus Green and I have found replacement paint already, but that is a long way off.

Here are a couple of photos of the ‘before’ [1] [2]