1971 Schwinn Suburban

[mitchito]

O have the ladies version , same color. Not sure what my plans are for it yet

 

[Tallbikeman]

The Varsity model came with the bulletproof forged blade front fork. The Suburban and Continental had a hollow tube brazed or welded together fork with the typical hollow fork crown piece holding both legs of the fork. Your Suburban has this type of fork. Not sure how they were manufactured. I run a 26" frame Varsity with stock forged fork. You are right it may be just the larger size frames that ride so nice. The Collegiate, Varsity, Suburban and Continental all shared components and frame manufacturing method. There are lots more models of Schwinn that share the same manufacturing method. https://www.sheldonbrown.com has a good article detailing the Schwinn Varsity manufacturing which will cover your bike too. Your experiments with taping the handlebars with foam is worth trying. Getting tape to look good over foam is where I had problems. It never looked all that nice. I run may handlebars just a bit above seat height. This keeps the pressure on my hands down so I don't get numb fingers and sore palms. I'm just about sitting upright when the pain and numbness stops being a problem. I've recently started using a type of grip that spreads the load on my palms over a much greater area and this has helped a lot. This is the type of grip I'm trying. They have an aluminum collar on both ends that you tighten and the grip won't rotate. This allows a large amount of force to be placed on the bulge side of the grip reducing the force per square inch on your palms. Really liking these grips so far.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

I'll vouch for those ergo grips. They work well.

 

[Jude Ephesus]

The Varsity model came with the bulletproof forged blade front fork. The Suburban and Continental had a hollow tube brazed or welded together fork with the typical hollow fork crown piece holding both legs of the fork. Your Suburban has this type of fork. Not sure how they were manufactured. I run a 26" frame Varsity with stock forged fork. You are right it may be just the larger size frames that ride so nice. The Collegiate, Varsity, Suburban and Continental all shared components and frame manufacturing method. There are lots more models of Schwinn that share the same manufacturing method. https://www.sheldonbrown.com has a good article detailing the Schwinn Varsity manufacturing which will cover your bike too. Your experiments with taping the handlebars with foam is worth trying. Getting tape to look good over foam is where I had problems. It never looked all that nice. I run may handlebars just a bit above seat height. This keeps the pressure on my hands down so I don't get numb fingers and sore palms. I'm just about sitting upright when the pain and numbness stops being a problem. I've recently started using a type of grip that spreads the load on my palms over a much greater area and this has helped a lot. This is the type of grip I'm trying. They have an aluminum collar on both ends that you tighten and the grip won't rotate. This allows a large amount of force to be placed on the bulge side of the grip reducing the force per square inch on your palms. Really liking these grips so far.View attachment 202298

Great input! Thanks!!!! -I have a similar set of grips on my daily grinder.

 

[twojs.bike]

Wow! I love those bars. I scrolled all the back to the first post to see what they were! Amazing! I will have to remember that!

 

[Jude Ephesus]

Wow! I love those bars. I scrolled all the back to the first post to see what they were! Amazing! I will have to remember that!

Thanks! No worries! -just 3 speed bars flipped upside down, with bar tape!