1978 Schwinn 3 Speed Muscle Bike

[FreddyS]

Just picked this up today and got it at a really good price. Made some good money on a recent flip and decided to invest in this bad little boy. It is complete and all original. Overall, in very good condition. Needs some work on the shifter and as luck would have it, I have a brand new Sturmy Archer 3 speed. Will get this buttoned up easy enough. The only thing is that it is only a 14 inch frame. Do you think a longer stem and a higher sissy bar can be added to it? The seat post should be 7/8 should it not? I was thinking of 24 inch sissy bars (they are 18 right now) and a 12 by 7/8 seat post. Do you all think this would work?

 

[Green Dragon]

looks ok to me, hard to see with the postage stamp sized photos.
Are you sure it's a 78 ? maybe 79 model year,78 build - the two tone paint bikes are 79 +. Looks like a full size stingray, so should be quite ridable... maybe taller sissy and bars like you noted, 79s did have the mid-rise bars.
Seat post on a Schwinn is 13/16", you can get Wadl posts readily available ( Amazon,etc ). Nice find.

 

[FreddyS]

Thanks. Just put my order in at Niagra Cycles. I was measuring the bars wrong. It is actually 24 inches so I need a 36 one which I jut ordered. Don't need a seat post as the one it has comes up quite a bit. The nice thing about the Sturmey Archer 3 speed trigger shifter is that they still make replacement parts which are quite reasonable. Aside from some serious cleaning and buffing, the only thing that needs replacing is the shifter and cable / housing. As far as when it was made, the serial number on the head post comes up 1978. It is conceivable that the frame is 1978 while and the complete bike was not put together until 1979. I noted the color scheme as you did, a 1979 one.