Sweat & 20 weight: Introduction to the Players - The Shop Bike

Like most lonely people in the world, I spend a lot of time on craigslist. Just not the "Personal's" side (Probably why I'm still lonely actually....)

After doing the 1/4 mile or so walk back and forth from my garage with loaded arms countless times I finally broke down and started looking for a bike. Being the cheapskate frugal individual I am (Owning a Datsun ain't cheap) I searched for a longtime before finally stumbling upon this "Beauty".


Wanting a durable bike to carry a load and my not so light self back and forth from the shop a Chicago born Schwinn Tank was the ticket, and at only $15 Dollars I called up the seller. A cheerful garbageman who thought it was too cool to trash tossed it up on top and brought it home, but just ended up being more than he wanted to deal with, enter me & my 15 Dollars.

The Rebirth of a Legend - 

Once I got It home I took the bent up fenders & chain guide off and spent a little time with a rubber mallet & pieces of wood to get them back to almost their original shapes.

From there it was time to take care of the mechanicals, oiling up the chain, replacing the brake pads & cleaning up the calipers themselves.

 And, well hoping the tubes inside these slightly weathered tires weren't nearly as old... Thankfully they went up to 30psi and somehow didn't explode into a million pieces.

Then a little bit of elbow grease and turtlewax before re-assembly I got her to clean up really well.

 

Ending up with this fine looking heavy weight Schwinn from my Hometown... good ole Chicago  

Then for her 2yr anniversary of great service as the shop bike bought a basket and installed an old rack I had sitting around.  Man is this thing convinient!

(And yes those are Datsun Parts...)