Overnight transformation: 1973 Speedster

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Just about exactly a year ago, I brought home this 1973 Speedster in need of TLC.

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I didn't have a definite plan for it, I just have a thing for rescuing Schwinn 26" camelback frames. I tinkered with it enough to make it rideable, then hung it in the shed and it has been sitting there neglected ever since. Until yesterday.

During this summer's RRBBO, I built up a '67 Speedster with a similar frame into a BMX-ish cruiser. I liked it so much that I got to thinking I should do the same with this yellow one, but those thoughts always involved buying a new set of wheels and new long-reach brakes and BMX levers from someplace like Porkchop BMX, and finding some wide, low BMX bars and an old-school-looking BMX stem, and ultimately spending a bunch of $$$. So the idea stayed there on the back burner.

Then a few days ago I noticed @plymouthrock 's question on my RRBBO thread, and I got to talking and thinking about it again, and I decided to try and build it up out of parts I had laying around. So yesterday evening I brought it in from the shed and started throwing parts at it to see what would stick. Wald 803 bars that I picked up at a swap last year. The castoff MTB wheels and tires I used to mock up the black one. Brakes off an old 20" Huffy Spyder project I bought and never found wheels for. Before going to bed, I had it looking mostly like I wanted it to. Then this morning, I got back at it and swapped in the crank and small sprocket and chain from a '76 Varsity that had seen better days, just in time to take it on a 10-mile ride with my daughter. I'm thrilled with the way it came out.

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I didn't notice this till today. Pretty cool that this bike made it all the way here to PA from San Francisco.
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I got this bike with mismatched brake levers, and I decided to keep the same mismatched levers.
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I was hesitant to use these brakes. I bought the Huffy muscle bike project they came from years ago, and I keep thinking I'm going to get it built up some day. All I need to find is some 20" wheels with a Shimano 3-speed hub... and a seat and sissy... and some handlebars... oh, and incidentals like the stem, and pedals, and the frame needs paint...

yeah, just use the brakes. :rofl:
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I had to rebuild the front caliper using the center bolt from the Schwinn/Weinmann unit, as the original was a little bent and twisted when I took it off the donor bike.
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That will make an way cool gravel bike!
Not gonna lie, I had to go to Google to see exactly what a gravel bike is. I have heard the term quite a bit, but never really knew what made it different from a cyclocross or mountain bike. And now that I have looked at it, I think the fact that it's single speed kinda keeps it from fitting the definition of a gravel bike... I had more of a BMX cruiser or strandie in mind when I bolted it together. But I have another build candidate:
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I got this a couple years ago and putzed around with it a little when I got it, then only rode it a few times. Sounds like maybe I need to raid an old mountain bike for wheels and bars and see where it takes me...
 

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