Schwinn Windwood good idea?

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cave12man

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Ok so my quest for the Murray Westport has ended and in place of it I'm thinking of getting a new-ish Schwinn Windwood to repaint and dress up for my pops. I found this bike obsessed guy on CL that will sell it to me for $100. It's in great condition and looks like the only downside is that it's used. I checked online and they can be had for about $140 so I'm thinking $100 is a deal. In addition to the bike I'll paint it shelby blue and silver (to match the '65 shelby cobra he just bought), get a layback seatpost for a little more comfort, a better comfier saddle, new chrome swept back handlebars, new leather grips, all black 26 x 2.125" tires, a bullet light for the front, new fenders and barefoot pedals so he can ride it to the beach.

Anyone think this is a good idea? My thoughts behind it are that instead of buying everything needed to rebuild the Westport, I can buy this newer bike which has everything and not risk getting something that doesn't fit or risk screwing up the build process. Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks to you guys for helping me with the Westport and parts sizing etc. Was a great learning experience even if it fell through!

P.S. I now have a disassembled, mostly intact, red Murray Westport if anyone wants it. I live in Philadelphia and can be had for $20. Let me know if you're interested. It does have rust.
 
I bought a Windwood to serve 2 functions. 1, I like to keep a basic coaster bike around as a beater, and my previous one lost it's dying rear wheel during last year's RRBBO. 2, I took a motor kit in lieu of rent once from my roomate, and the Windwood had great clearance, which is needed for the spoke-mounted driven ring. So far, I have 3 minor negative points. 1. The bearing cages are really cheap, one was deformed during assembly. 2. The "grease" they put in them is sticky crap, more like cosmoline. :roll: 3. Made in China. Fortunately I have come to expect poor assembly on cheap bikes over the years, so the first 2 problems were solved before any real damage occurred. If you want new and cheap, the third is pretty much unavoidable. It's lighter than an old bike, it's also lighter duty. It was jigged straight and the welds seem to be clean and consistant. The wheels came centered and evenly tensioned, and so far haven't dented or corroded. I'd say it's as good as you'll get out of a modern dept. store bike, I'm not disappointed with it.
 
Cool thanks for the honest opinion, exactly what I was looking for. No bs and straight to the point. The bike will be used to get to the beach and back so even though I'm going to put a bit of money into it I think it'll serve its purpose nicely. The heads up about the grease and cages are great so I can regrease everything with some good stuff before putting it back together after the paint job and nip those in the bud before anything happens.
 
I got the Schwinn Del Mar for like $120 from Wal-Mart and am very satisfied with the bike. Of course because of it being a low end bike there are some issues, but they were small things like mentioned in the above posts. Loose nuts, bolts, axels, tire alignment. You got to remember there is probably some 16 year old kid in the back of wal-mart getting payed $5hr to put these bikes together, so I doubt he's doing a top notch assembly. Anyways after doing a run through of the bike assembly and fixing minor things the bike is awesome. I've put a springer front end which lowered the bike because of the head tube being shorter then the forktube which I had to lathe up a piece of aluminum to fill the space, came out .......' looking though. Flipped, chopped the handle bars and added the skull bar ends. Removed the goofy rack off the back and modified the seat to sit back farther and lower. Anyways here's some pics of the "Del Mar Rat" Hope I post them right and you guys/gals can see them.

IMG00053-20100331-1306.jpg

IMG00052-20100331-1306.jpg

IMG00045-20100331-1304.jpg
 
Awesome O'sider thanks for the reply. Bike looks pretty ....... I think the delmar is pretty close to the Windwood so that works for me. Obviously it's not the best of bikes but for what my pops is going to do with it I;m thinking is about right. Who did you get the springer from? I was thinking of getting one but wasn;t sure how it would look on the newer schwinn. After seeing yours I'm leaning towards it again!

I agree on getting the seat back a little farther so I'm going to throw a layback seatpost on it to get it back a bit. Hopefully everything works the way I want it to. Thanks again and good work!
 
I got the springer off an e-bay store bikebuyers.com. I wasn't sure about the springer just like you, but for $39.99 plus shipping I took a shot at it and it came out descent. They aren't the sturdiest thing out there just to let you know, but they do the job.
 
I actually came across them once or twice before but wasn't sure of the quality. Should be good for the purpose I guess. Did you have any trouble with the installation?
 
A little fudge factors, but it was pretty simple. Bottom bearing cup didn't quite fit so had to take a little material off with sand paper. Also I had to make a spacer to cover the exposed threads and give the fork tube cap and spring perch something to tighten down to. I'll take a picture of the spacer when I get home. I lathed up a piece of aluminum to an outside diameter of 1 1/2" and a inside diameter of 1 1/16"(If I remember right) to slide over the exposed fork tube. But you could probaly find a piece of pipe to do the samething. I'm at work right now, but will post a pic up by tomorrow.
 
Heres a couple pics of the spacer I made to make the long tube springer fit perfectly on the department store style schwinns with the short head tubes. I actually really dig it because it lowers the front end about 1-5/16"(the length of the spacer).
IMG00056-20100423-0818.jpg

IMG00058-20100423-0820.jpg
 
man that actually looks pretty cool. my only problem is that i don't have any access to a lathe or metal working equip. maybe i can find a piece of pipe that will do the job. nice work though i'll have to remember this!

i would have to see what the deal is when i get the springer (not sure if i'm getting a regular or bent) but if i'd definitely pay you to make another if you're down with it...
 
Look around, the Schwinn-style springers come with different steer tube lengths, anywhere from 5 3/4" up to 9" or so, apparently even longer, having seen them on Electras. Obviously, the 5 3/4"- 7" (140-180mm) range is what you'll be looking for.
http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_inf ... s_id=10839
http://www.bicycledesigner.com/defaulth ... r%3D513002
http://www.nirve.com/accessories.asp?cid=3002
http://www.bikeworldusa.com/product_inf ... cts_id/122
These are sources with a decent rep., gathered on this forum. There's quite a few others, some of which are rip-offs.
Bikeworld USA and Niagara come highly recommended.
 
Many thanks for the links man, so awesome someone would go through the trouble. I just measured my fork and it seems to be 5 3/4". Does that sound right? It's either that or 6". Which of those you linked to would work? It seems the Nirve one would be best but I'm not sure. I don;t have any means for modification so I'm going to need to get one that fits exactly if thats possible. Thanks again for the help.
 
Also, the stem is 22.2 and the diameter of the steerer seems to be 1". Does that make sense? Does it change anything with the springer?
 
i get that, but i think most of those springers have a tube that's too long. right? most seem to be aound 7" i think. would i just have to cut it to fit?
 
That's a common method. Since they give 4" of threaded end, that would work with the one listed at http://www.bicycledesigner.com/defaulth ... r%3D513002. Not sure about the others, I'm pretty sure BikeworldUSA would answer if you asked them about theirs. If you do this I would recommend threading on the upper bearing race before cutting, then you can chase free the cut threads with it.
 
I'm actually going to buy some other parts off bicycle designer so I think I'll just go with them. Good call on threading the race first so I can back it out, not sure if I would have remembered to do that. When cutting the fork, I should cut it the same length as the existing one but add on the thickness of the springer bracket correct?

Thanks again for the help!
 

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