Need a favor from someone with a 2013 Schwinn Heavy-Duti

[mornview]

If you have a 2013 Schwinn Heavy-Duti, could you please post a close-up picture of the chainguard (right around the chainring)?

I got a frame from Chuck a while back and it's in excellent condition, except for a small dent in the chainguard. I really love the way this chainguard compliments the frame, so I want to preserve it as much as possible, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to saw a bit of it off; it just doesn't seem possible to hammer it out (the drive pin clobbers it every time the chainring goes around, and trying to alter the dent just pushes the guard up against the chainring).

So a picture of what the chainguard's lines are supposed to look like would be much appreciated. Due to the dent and some stylistic choices on the manufacturer's part, I can't quite figure out how this thing looked before it got beat up.

Thanks!

 

[Bicycle808]

Try moving the guards arms/bolt inboard of the tab over the bb shell? Also, monkey around with those arms to try to get the position you need...

 

[Nagant]

My Schwinn HD is a few or more years older than yours and I had to do a lot of adjusting to get the chain guard to clear everything. It's one of Chucks frame sets and my guard was a little bent at the bottom corner to the left of where yours is bent. After straightening that spot out I still had to bend the back mounting tab some as well as move the front around in the tab slot to find the sweet fitting spot where everything clears.

 

[Bicycle808]

When i was cruising a 2013 SHD w/ a guard, i remember doing a lot of little tweaks. At least once, I thought I had it right on the stand, only to find that it still rubbed once I was actually on the bike. The earlier SHDs i've palped, i always omitted the guard, but i think the basic design is the same, with different graphics and maybe some minor details....

 

[mornview]

Thanks guys; it's good to know that this isn't an isolated issue. I really would be interested in seeing what the stock crankset looks like; I can't imagine any crankset not having a close call around the drive pin area. I suppose switching to a 3 piece crank would solve this issue, but that's an upgrade in the cards down the road.

I should've kept the stickers on the frame; it looks like mine was a legit industrial bike - it was apparently used in the I&E department. If the worst thing that happened was a ding in the chainguard, I can live with that .

 

[Nagant]

I'm running an old Huffy 10 speed 46T outer ring and crank on mine and don't own the original. Have you tried searching Google images for Schwinn Heavy Duti to see if there is a quality image of the original crank? Searching this sight alone might get you the pic you desire. Just like Bicycle 808 mentioned I had to make all sorts of small adjustments and readjustments before I got mine dialed in where it cleared everything. The front mounting tab is slotted and will give you some adjustment but I had to bend the tabs a little and bend the guard itself. Tweaking the guard was fairly easy. I used a large pair of slip joint pliers and a thick shop rag to keep from marring the paint up.

 

[Bicycle808]

Here's the stock pic; doesn't show much detail of the crank, but you can see that it's a completely "normal" OPC, in black.

Interestingly enough, these came with 46t sprockets, standard, where most bikes in this style run a 44t. Of course, b/c mornview's interference is occuring at the drivepin, the size of the sprocket is immaterial. He'd be bumpin' the chainguiard with the pin with any OPC sprocket, from a 36 to a 52. The issue comes in that the gruard is trying to occupy a space within that drivepin's path as the crank turns and, b/c OPCs are all going to need to have the drivepin in roughly the same place (the design of the OPC and associated sprockets will only allow for a few mm of variation--IF they hypothetically they made a crank with a "low-pro" drivepin, it would only accept sprockets specifically made for the crank...), you're not likely to resolve this by swapping in a different one piece crank. A 3 piece could do it, depending on the design of whatever crank you chose, but then you'll be fighting the good fight against BB spindles and which length will give you the correct chainline without rubbing your guard, so my advice:

Stick with the OPC that you got, but play around with the guard. I suspect that your best strategy is to play around with the 2 braces that bolt onto the boss on the BB shell, and you'll also need to "massage" the guard itself in the area with the dent. TBH, it looks like the dent/scratching on the guard may've been caused by intereference with the drivepin; guys at the warehouse probably had the same issue, but didn't care and just rode it anyway. I'm hoping i can take a butcher's at my erstwhile 2013 SHD to see if there's a factor I'm missing, but I'm not sure if the bike's new owner is even running the guard anymore...

 

[mornview]

Wow, I sure am glad I'm running chrome fenders - not a big fan of those yellow ones.

Anyways, I think Bicycle808 nailed it - if you look at the wear on the chainguard, it appears that they must've just ran the chainguard despite it being in the way. (Out of curiosity, does anyone know if these bikes are sold pre-assembled? I wouldn't doubt that the previous owner simply mounted the chainguard incorrectly and then never cared to correct it).

In any case, for as small of an area as the dent takes up, it's a very complicated dent. It's both dented inward towards the chainring and outward towards the crankarm, and in the process has somewhat flattened out a little as well, extending the chainguard rear-wards towards the drive-pin. I've played with the mounting a bit, but it's just such a cramped space in between the chainring and crankarm, and the chainguard wants to hit both of them simultaneously. I think sawing the dented portion off is really the only solution (short of upgranding to three piece crank). It's not the end of the world; I just know how good it's gonna look when I'm done with it . Thanks again guys.

 

[Bicycle808]

Most of the SHDs in past years--and the current model-- have silver stainless steel fenders, which is pretty awesome. I have nothing against yellow fenders in general, but i'll agree that the stock 2013 SHD is a LOT of yellow. Probably too much.

My experience with how bikes come from the manufacturer is that they'll be 90% assembled. Front wheel off, stem loose so it can be turned flat, in-line with the fork blades, seatpost either off or slammed...but the chainguard will have been installed (possibly incorrectly) b/c that'd be the most compact way to pack it. It's possible that someone messed it up at Pacific, or someone from the factory where it was used.... and it's also possible that either the guard or the frame bosses were defective from jump--prior to assembly. At any rate, i thik if you carefully remove the piece that interferes, it'll look fine. No one will even notice.

 

[mornview]

No one will even notice.

Yeah, no one except it's biggest critic - it's builder .

Really, though, I think we all need to hear that advice occassionally. I think we all get caught up in making every detail of our bikes perfect, when in reality, 99% of the people who are going to see our bikes can't distinguish it from a Cannondale road bike, Specialized mountain bike, etc.

 

[jerrykr]

Where I work there are a lot of bikes in use, and quite a number of them are Schwinn Heavy Duty. It's a big place and bikes are used to get around instead of walking. As you may imagine the people who ride bikes here care nothing about the bike, except to get from A to B. I happened to see one this morning and thought of this thread. It's chain guard had that part sawed off, and not nicely. So I guess your problem is common to these bikes.

 

[mornview]

Where I work there are a lot of bikes in use, and quite a number of them are Schwinn Heavy Duty. It's a big place and bikes are used to get around instead of walking. As you may imagine the people who ride bikes here care nothing about the bike, except to get from A to B. I happened to see one this morning and thought of this thread. It's chain guard had that part sawed off, and not nicely. So I guess your problem is common to these bikes.

Awesome; thanks for sharing that anecdote. I think I kind of went into this thread already pretty much knowing what the solution to my problem was going to have to be; I think I was almost more hoping to get some insight into how it happened in the first place.

And that's awesome that companies are putting these Heavy-Duti's and Worksmans to use. I think that pretty much instantly makes any job more enjoyable.

 

[ind-chuckz]

I should have another chainguard if you need one.

 

[mornview]

I was curious what your stance on chainguards was, knowing that you're exposed to the salt like I am. For what it's worth, last winter my wife had a chainguard on and I did not (mine was interfering with the crankarm for some reason). Having a chainguard on made a huge difference for her bike imo. And to back up your friends' claims - the chain never freezes to the guard. For that matter, wheels freezing to the fenders was never an issue either, if my memory serves me correctly, and I would consider fenders indispensible for winter commuting. But you're getting impressive mileage out of your beater, so what do I know?

I think my approach is somewhere in between yours and your friend's. I ideally would like to just build one winter bike and be able to use it forever, so I do put in work to take care of it. But at the same time, I realize it's not going to last forever given what I'm putting it through, so I don't slave over maintaining it as well as I should. I guess I'd be happy if I get a solid ten years out of this year's build.

Incidentally, my wife also swears by the step-through frames in the winter for the same reason as you. I also was going through last winter on my main commuter, a diamond-frame 1 & 3/8 tire lightweight - without studs. I went with that simply because winter came up before I could find a good frame to build up a winter commuter. I fell three times. My wife has a middleweight with studs and never fell once.

 

[mornview]

I forgot to mention - in the interest of showing what a little bit of preventative maintenance can (or can't) do, I'm going to try to chronicle how my bike looks from the beginning of the season till the end of the season. I wax the whole frame and almost all of the exposed components, and I'm hoping that'll do a good job preserving them. I for whatever reason have stubbornly insisted on chrome fenders for my winter build (because it just looks so much better than the plastic ones), but I'm rather doubtful they're going to fare too well in all of that salt.

 

[Bicycle808]

Nice idea to use photos to chronicle the weather's effect on your bike. Should be interesting.

In NJ, it snows frequently but usually in low volume; we don't get snow like the Michiganders do, but whenever it snows at all, the local gov't spreads TONS of salt on the roads. So, i'm no stranger to the effects of road salt on bicycles. Some of my bikes sport plastic fenders (road bikes, mtb conversions) but, like you, I feel that a cruiser looks best with steel fenders. My main commuter bike is a Worksman; i run the gloss black #962 fenders on it. The coating Wald uses on these holds up to salt much better than chrome does, and if it starts to rust, i just snd it a bit and paint over the exposed metal with some black nail polish. IT's held up quie well so far.

 

[mornview]

Just noticed all of us56456712's posts in this thread are deleted. It now appears I'm talking to myself for the last few posts (which probably isn't far from the truth ).

Bicyce808 - I'm impressed how well your fenders are holding up. I went with Summit's chrome balloon tire fenders. I was really happy with a chrome Summit headset Chuckz sent me a while back, and this fender set was a whopping $12 (and it even includes the nice details like the flaired ends of the top-of-the-line Wald's). Given the cheap price I'm a little worried about how long the chrome is going to last, but I've drenched these babies in wax, so we'll see.

 

[ind-chuckz]

The 2014 frame are much improved the beefier dropouts on the rear frame stay's. I talked to Schwinn last year about this issue.

 

[ind-chuckz]

In the mid 80'S Schwinn had some fenders 53-130 I repair bikes today that those fenders are still in great condition no rust.