A Varsity Rat Rod?

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Steve,

I didn't have the chance to join yesterday and I'm not even certain I should be here but you Rat Rodders strike my Scottish thriftyness vein and I've been contemplating the following project. (Besides, this will be the very first post in the "Bike Restoration" section. How cool is that?)

Ok, this is what I've been thinking of doing over the winter: Last winter I found a '71 Kool Lemon Varsity at the town dump (first year for that color on a Varsity). It's all original (except tires) and in good condition. Needs tires, cables, and bar wrap. The paint only has a few bad spots, the decals are in decent shape, and other than a complete cleaning, rust removal, and grease repacking, would be a nice compliment to my collection of Schwinn lightweights: '66 Collegiate, '66 Paramount, & '79 Traveler.

BUT THIS IS WHAT I'M PLANNING TO DO: I have enough dump find parts to equip my Varsity with "Drillium" components. If you are not familiar with Drillium, its what vintage road racers would do in the 60s, 70s and 80s to shave weight off thier bikes. They would drill little holes in everything they could, brake calipers, chainrings, brake levers, shifters, etc. They would do this to the highest end Campy, DuraAce, Suntour, etc., stuff. Today Drillium components fetch big bucks on ebay.

Instead of highend componets, I would save the original parts and make my own Drillium out of the low end dump find parts that I have; Weinmann brake levers, DiaComp calipers, Huret shifter, Columbia chainring, old North Road handlebars turned upside down. It would be unique, to say the least, fun to do over a long cold winter, and the shock from some "Restore it to Original" collectors, would be enjoyable to witness.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Bob
 
Welcome aboard!

Hey PastorRat....ha ha! Your new alter ego :lol:

Thanks for joining!! All are welcome here.

I've never heard of those parts, but they sure sound cool. You're going to have to post some images so we can see what you have. I guess the holes that were drilled don't lessen their strength?

I'm all for making folks do a double take. It sounds like you have it all planned out and it will be a fun project for the winter.

And considering how nice your Collegiate turned out, the Varsity should be one sweet lemon!
 
Steve,

About posting pictures; can I download them from my computer as we do over on SF and BF? I'm not very savvy at this stuff and I don't upload my pics to a picture webserver. I want to post a picture of "My Varsity, the day it came home from the dump," but couldn't figure out how. Can you help.

BTW, great idea for this forum. I hope it takes off.

Bob
 
PastorRat said:
Steve,

About posting pictures; can I download them from my computer as we do over on SF and BF? I'm not very savvy at this stuff and I don't upload my pics to a picture webserver. I want to post a picture of "My Varsity, the day it came home from the dump," but couldn't figure out how. Can you help.

BTW, great idea for this forum. I hope it takes off.

Bob

Well fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, this style of forum won't allow uploading of images. You have to have them on a server somewhere and then hit the image button above, then paste in the URL of where the image is and then hit the button again.

Email me the photos direct and I'll help ya out.

[email protected]
 
I've joined Photobucket so I can now post pics. Here's the Varsity that I have special plans for over the winter.
71VarsityMar2006.jpg
 

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