[Doohickie]

Doing my regular rounds on Friday I spotted a Schwinn Prelude outside a pawn shop. After a little checking and finding out it's a pretty decent ride (better than my Raleigh Marathon in quality), I decided to pick it up. I will either flip this one or sell off the Marathon. It seems to be mostly original except for the rear wheel, tires, seat, handlebar tape and... the shifters. It's supposed to have Shimano S.I.S. downtube shifters and instead has cheapie replacement stem shifters. I'm looking into getting some S.I.S. DT shifters to bring it closer to original. The paint on the frame was a little rough, but it's black so I just touched it up with a paint pen.

Some pics:

As found-




During the cleanup process-

[KC-Steve]

XLNT! Whatever you paid, I'm sure it was a good deal. I would have jumped on it too. Since the decals look good I would have just touched up the paint too. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: It looks like the badge rivets have been replaced with screws. Is it my eyes?

Steve

[KC-Steve]

XLNT! Whatever you paid, I'm sure it was a good deal. I would have jumped on it too. Since the decals look good I would have just touched up the paint too. Thanks for sharing.

Steve

[KC-Steve]

Oops sorry about the double post. I was checking Preludes' specifications for 1987 and found the original colors were "Midnight Mauve" and "Ice Pink." After looking up mauve, I found that is a kind of purple. So my guess is the bike was painted at some point. But still a nice bike Doohickie!

Steve

[TxCyclist]

Nice find! I ride by pawn shops all the time and while they have some gems they want a small fortune for them.

[Doohickie]

Yeah, this was a pretty good bargain. It has a couple little issues such as the shifters and one of the brake cable guides is missing (thinking about replacing it with one from a scrap frame with a little JB Weld). Other than that, it's in okay shape. I touched up the paint a bit and could see the difference between the new paint and the old, oxidized paint. I tried some automotive wax and now all the paint matches.

[Doohickie]

A few pics from today's ride:

[Doohickie]

And... those sad aftermarket stem shifters are no more! I went to a swap meet this morning and picked up a pair of Shimano indexed downtube shifters and put them on while watching the Superbowl. The weather outside is crappy, cold and wet so I can't do a test ride, but on the stand, the shifting is "Click-Plunk! Click-Plunk! Click-Plunk! Click-Plunk! Click-Plunk!" up and down the rear cogs. Woohoo!

[Doohickie]

I got a short test ride in with the new shifters last night before the snow hit; it shifts nicely.

[devinfan]

That Schwinn looks dynamite! The black and white colour-scheme is very cool. I want one!