Schwinn Homegrown

[us56456712]

Late this summer I cleaned out a friends rental units of all the old abandoned college student department store bikes. I ripped them apart and tossed them into a scrap trailer, which is now buried under 2 feet of snow. On reflection one of the bikes recently peaked my interest as it was a little newer. I think all that remains in the trailer are the frame, fork, treadless stem and bars. I don't think the crank, brakes or derailleurs are there. I gave away the wheels, I think it was an 8 speed. The frame is made from aluminum and is full suspension. The rear shock looked like the one on the other cheap Mongooses and other MB frames I got from the rental units. It is badged as a Schwinn Homegrown. Is this worth saving, or should I leave it in the bottom of the scrap trailer? It is newer than the other full suspension MB I scraped from this clean out as it has the treadless headset and one more gear in the freewheel. That is all I recall. Was this made in USA as Homegrown would seem to indicate? If it is a good frame I will pull it out from the trailer the next time I go to our camp, which is 60 miles away. I brought one of the Mongooses to a local bike shop and they said it was a piece of junk when it was new so I assumed they were all junk? I can't find a picture on the net that looks like it. Did they make junky Home Growns later in production?

 

[patman73]

a schwinn xt in 1998 sold for about $2000
it might be a cool bike if it was that bike
i searched homegrown schwinn & found the price on mtbr.com

 

[Bicycle808]

Early homegrowns were top-notch, made for Schwinn by Yeti. Around the turn of the century, other makers (in Taiwan AND USA) took over for Yeti. A shame you ditched all the derailers; they were probably good parts (AFAIK, all Homegrowns were bikeshop bikes, as opposed to dept store bikes), and they brand/group of the derailers could probably tell us the age of the bike. 8 speed could be anywhere from early 90s (XTR) on up....but if we knew what group (XTR, XT, LX/DX, Deore, etc...) we could sleuth it out, especially if we had numbers to go with it (950, 740, etc...)

 

[Raoul Dude]

Depending on who you believe, the Homegrown line were either pretty good bikes in their day, or are still some of those older bikes that are worth hanging onto: http://detours.us/blog/ambassador-program/a-durango-story-the-schwinn-homegrown/

As I recall (and Wikipedia supports that) they were Schwinn's last big hurrah in the world of mountain bikes before Schwinn was sold to Pacific Cycles -- last paragraph of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwinn_Bicycle_Company#Labor_troubles.2C_bankruptcy_and_demise

Mongoose was a much more reputable brand (IMHO) in the '80's and '90's before they started selling low-end "budget bikes" at stores like Walmart and Target -- until tonight I didn't know that they were still making higher end bikes as well!

 

[patman73]

it might be a cool bike to build !

 

[Bicycle808]

Something to remember about full-suspension bikes; the older/early ones will likely have primitive coil suspension, that looks much like the current WallyWorld full-suspension dogs, but that doesn't mean the older bike is low-quality. (But, it will be heavy.) Familiarize yourself with component groups for better clues as to how nice a bike was when it was new; Tourney, Acera, Altus are low-end. Alivio, plain-ol' Deore from around 1990* on, LX, and DX were decent bike shop bikes; XT and XTR were top-line bikes. Road groups follow a similar hierarchy, but a WallyWorld road bike is unlikely to have groups with actual names on'm.

*Deore started in the early 80s as a touring groupset. After Shimano Deore XT, the first of Shimano's full mtb groups (AKA "Deerhead") did so well, they switched the plain Deore to a slightly-lower-than-XT mtb group; the MT60 Deore stuff was second-tier kit, and realllllly nice. By the 90s, mtb fever had caught on, and Shimano introduced top-level racing XTR, kept XT, introduced Deore LX, Deore DX, and reduced plain-ol' Deore to mid-range, plus added a host of lower mtb groups that basically replaced the various "Exage" groups from the late 80s. Exage is easy to figure out; low numbers (starting with Exage 80) were crap; higher numbers (up to Exage 500, i believe) were nicer....

As for the Suntour groups, well.... that's even more complicated!

 

[us56456712]

it might have the crank still but it might be cross threaded. I will pull it out and see what is there next time I am at camp. Hopefully it won't be crushed as there is a Model T frame on top.

Early homegrowns were top-notch, made for Schwinn by Yeti. Around the turn of the century, other makers (in Taiwan AND USA) took over for Yeti. A shame you ditched all the derailers; they were probably good parts (AFAIK, all Homegrowns were bikeshop bikes, as opposed to dept store bikes), and they brand/group of the derailers could probably tell us the age of the bike. 8 speed could be anywhere from early 90s (XTR) on up....but if we knew what group (XTR, XT, LX/DX, Deore, etc...) we could sleuth it out, especially if we had numbers to go with it (950, 740, etc...)

I'll try and resurrect what I can, perhaps the derailleurs are still in the trailer.

 

[MazdaFlyer]

They were expensive around 1995 or so and frames made by Yeti. I couldn't afford one but bought a chromoly framed Moab S that year. It was an import but a great bike. Hanging in the garage now. Needs tires. If I were in your shoes I'd dig out the frame and see what you have.

 

[VR6GTiGuy]

The original Yeti built mid 90's hard tail Homegrown frames were very well built and handled very well. I was working at a Schwinn dealer at the time and people (including me) waited months to get a frame. No one regretted the wait. Really a fantastic and underrated bike and that is coming from someone who would not be caught dead on a Schwinn prior to that (yep, I was a bike snob).

I believe the first year for the full suspension was around '97. Although a decent bike at the time, as Bicycle808 said full suspension technology has come a long way since then. They have not held much value at this point, bit it was a quality bike and would still be a keeper for a fun build if in decent shape.

 

[us56456712]

The original Yeti built mid 90's hard tail Homegrown frames were very well built and handled very well. I was working at a Schwinn dealer at the time and people (including me) waited months to get a frame. No one regretted the wait. Really a fantastic and underrated bike and that is coming from someone who would not be caught dead on a Schwinn prior to that (yep, I was a bike snob).

I believe the first year for the full suspension was around '97. Although a decent bike at the time, as Bicycle808 said full suspension technology has come a long way since then. They have not held much value at this point, bit it was a quality bike and would still be a keeper for a fun build if in decent shape.

Thanks for the info. I can hardly wait to see what remains in my scrap heap. It was a complete bike when I picked it up but I had so many that I didn't really think about it until recently. I really thought they were all junk as the local bike shop said the 3 older Mongooses were junk. They were probably wanted to sell me a $2500 new full suspension. In all fairness I didn't show them the Schwinn Homegrown. The owner of the bike shop has a magnificent bike collection and I am sure he would have set me straight if I had shown it to him. My mistake was that I figured it was a big box bike.

 

[patman73]

mistakes happen

 

[Bendix]

Here's an exhaustive (and exhausting) thread on Schwinn Homegrowns and which, if any, were actually cut and welded by Yeti. Folks can get pretty wound up over the topic!

http://forums.mtbr.com/vintage-retro-classic/schwinn-homegrown-frame-date-258874.html

 

[patman73]

how does the bike look us56456712 ?

 

[us56456712]

how does the bike look us56456712 ?

I still have to drive 65 miles to our camp and take all the stuff out of my scrap trailer to see what's left. There is a model T frame, some body parts, and old culvert, etc on top

 

[patman73]

alot of work to get to the bike !

 

[us56456712]

alot of work to get to the bike !

I was going to go out there today and rescue the Homegrown but last night there was freezing rain and now we are going to be getting 10 inches of wet snow. I will have to wait to dig out the homegrown. I will post what I find.

 

[us56456712]

I made it to camp and dug out the Homegrown. The frame is broken. I have a feeling that this happened in the scrap trailer when I piled the heavy stuff on top of it. I think the local bike coop will take the frame for a wall hanger. I could have already been broken when I got it and that would explain why it was abandoned in my buddies rental unit. I think it is more likely that I broke it. I hauled it 65 miles in the bottom of the scrap trailer from here to my camp. It had a Model T frame on top plus a bunch of other heavy stuff. I had so much weight in the trailer that one of my trailer tires delaminated with such force that it blew off the fender. Next time I will be a little more carful, but I had 39 bikes last summer and I am now down to 22. I scrapped or gave away 16 and sold one for $50. When I need space it gets tossed or given away, I don't have the time to deal with selling or space for any more that 22 bikes. I live in an uptight neighborhood and the neighbors call the cops when I have bikes or bathroom fixtures outside from a remodel job. One neighbor goes around measuring your lawn and if it is 11 inches long he calls the yard police. There is something wrong with him and most people ignore him and all the keep out signs in his yard.

 

[patman73]

maybe it was a sign the bike was not meant to live again

 

[jonathan creason]

Feces occurs