[orygundustin]

Well, after riding the bike for a while I decided to sell it on our local craigslist. Was asking $150, got $140. She will be missed, but my garage sailing scored me a mint Schwinn Suburban today $15. A little klunky, but the looks are worth it.

[froze]

Let me get this straight, you sold a very nice Prelude and instead bought a Suburban? Are you nuts? I guess you don't ride much. Seriously, what was wrong with the Prelude after riding it you didn't like it?

[orygundustin]

Haha! I know, Im new at this. I bought a wonderful Prelude at a garage sale for $10. Another $40 and it was the best bike I have ever used. It was purple and I was going to sell it, make some $, and get a new bike. Well, turns out Preludes are not that common around here and I cant get another. A little while after selling the Prelude, I got a Schwinn Suburban (rides like a 1995 Chevy Suburban with no air in the tires). I sold that yesterday for $100, thank goodness. So I have been searching for a new (old) Prelude and I am not having any luck. I did, however, just got a nice Univega road bike that will keep me rolling until I find another Prelude.

The bottom line is, I miss purple.

I bet you guys that are really into bikes have sold a gem at one point...right?

[froze]

What model is the Univega? Univega did make some nice bikes.

Actually I don't sell my bikes! If I find a bike that I think was a really nice bike in it's day, and it's in good shape, and the price is reasonable, and of course it fits, I'll buy it and keep it. I don't have the time to get into turning bikes for a profit. The bad thing about where I live, though my wife thinks it's a good thing, is that finding good vintage bikes is very difficult.

When you turn and burn bikes you have to know what your doing in regards to making sure it's a vintage enough bike that it would command a profit. If your doing this sort of thing you will come to realize you can make more money selling the components separate then sell the frame...BUT, I hope your not the greedy type, because these old bikes should not be bastardized for the sake of greed. I try to keep all of mine as stock as possible, if it's missing an important original part I will scour E-Bay till I find it. There's only one bike that I have that came with Suntour ARX trany and that system was the worst system Suntour made even though it was high mid end components, so I will probably switch it to Suntour Cyclone MKII because the following year model of the exact same bike had the Cyclone instead.

[schwinnman]

Cool bike. I plan on keeping my 2011 schwinn torist in the best original condition possible. As for getting your parts you can try pacific cycle parts department. They might just have the parts you need. I got a set of retaining washers for the front fork from them and I only found one other web site that actualy had them. I got them for free as a sighn of good will. I'm pretty sure they can help. pacific cycle is the one company that provides all the parts for schwinn bikes.

[salvage_bikes]

Try different shops. Some pawn shops sell them as loss leaders to get traffic into their shops. I think most pawn shops operate by trying to get people to "pawn" lots of profitable household goods in order to get 1 thing they want, and basically counting on people to not pay back loans in order to sell their stuff. Some haggle if you have cash.

Originally Posted by Dean

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

[salvage_bikes]

Those are Presta valves. You can get a brass adapter for $1-2 from a bike shop, and most pumps have a reversible chuck that will fill them. Also, you can drill the holes for Shraeder valves if you really want to. (use a sharp bit, and remove the rim tape first!) Then you can use 27x1 shrader tubes for cheap.

Originally Posted by orygundustin

I found this thread on google today. I found a Schinn Prelude at a garage sale for $10. I dont know a lot about bikes other than how to ride one, but knew this one was special and got it. It looks (to my eye) like it is all factory condition, only found 2 small scuffs and a bike shop sticker. It went to air up the tires and they are some other kind of stem, my pump got confused once I put it up to it so I cant ride it until I figure that out, but im sure it will work based on the un used condition that it is in.

What I am wondering if this bike is indeed worth getting tuned up and trying to use, or is it just another bike? I have a good bike already, just a cheap mountain bike but thats all I really need and it works fine. I took a bunch of pictures but cant seem to find the post picture button. Thanks for you time!