1981 Schwinn Sports Tourer Restoration

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle After

Today we have a 1981 Schwinn Sports Tourer.  I do not know a lot about the Schwinn Sports Tourer in the lugged form.  The Sports Tourer originally was a fillet-brazed  frame starting in the early 1970's, I do not know the story of why in 1981 it was a lugged frame.  I know a heck of a lot about Schwinn, this is something I do not know.  I have restored a Sport Tourer fillet-brazed model sometime back before I understood blogs and taking photos and getting your work out there.  The fillet brazed one turned out almost perfect, I am going to try to find the two photos I have of it in the after results.  It was the perlish blue version and they had the crank that was similar to the Schwinn Superior fillet-brazed model.

Having restored the fillet-brazed Sports Tourer model some time back I am very excited to get a chance at the Sport Tourer lugged version.  The Sports Tourer will get a complete restoration with new tire and tubes, new cables and cable housings and new handlebar tape.

On a side note I am already frustrated with typing the word Tourer, it is awkward and driving my spell check nuts!

The Sports Tourer is in black, one of my favorites when you put all the polished alloy and chrome against it.  See my Mom's Schwinn Super Le Tour restoration and the 1977 Schwinn Superior restoration posts to see what I mean!  The Sport Tourer is in a little bit of a rough start, the bottom bracket bearings are stiff and grinding, the chrome has a pretty good amount of rust, the alloy is tarnished and the paint is very dirty and dull with some chipping and scratching.  The chips should fill easy with a black and the paint should polish to a deep shine, the white primer under the black is annoying showing all the chips.

I am excited because I think the Sports Tourer is a real diamond in the rough, it should come back sparkling and ready for many miles.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Before
Handlebars

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Before- Front BRake

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Before - Front Wheel Hub

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Before - Stem & Headset

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Before
Shift Levers

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Before - Crank

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Before
Front Derailleur

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Before - Seat Lug

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Before - Rear Brake

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Before - Rear Derailleur

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Before
Rear Wheel Hub

I stripped the frame of the components and got to cleaning the paint.  The paint was very dirty and has the chips and scraps, it took a good deal of deep cleaning to get the paint ready for polishing.  The black paint polished to a very deep shine, I am very happy with it.  The black paint really shines but as with all the other black frames the shine on black paint does not photograph well.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Frame Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Frame Before - Head Tube

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Frame Before
Bottom Bracket

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Frame Before - Drop Outs

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Frame Before - Fork

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Frame Before - Fork Crown

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Frame Before
Fork Chrome - Rust

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Frame Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Frame Polished
Head Tube

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Frame Polished
Bottom Bracket

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Frame Polished - Fork

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Fork Chrome Rust
Removed & Polished - Extremely Proud of the Results!

While I was cleaning and polishing the frame I put the headset and bottom bracket into the crock pot on low for cleaning.  Both the headset and bottom bracket cleaned nicely and polished very nicely, best of all they both spin nicely.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Headset & Bottom Bracket
Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Headset & Bottom Bracket
Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Headset Bearings - Packed

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Headset - Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bottom Bracket
Bearings -  Packed

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bottom Bracket
Complete

The stem and handlebars polished very nice.  The chrome and alloy is really starting to come together against the black paint.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Stem & Handlebars
Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Stem & Handlebars - Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Stem - Complete

The crank is not my favorite, it looks fine but is a pain in its design.  The crank does not disassemble down very far, basically just the chain rings separate from the crank arm which is a one piece unit with the bash guard.  I exploded the crank as much as I could and power polished as much as I could and then went to hand polishing.  The crank looks great, it just takes so much elbow grease to get it there.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Crank - Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Crank - Exploded

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Crank - Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Crank - Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Crank - Installed

Next I worked on the brake levers, at some point someone removed the suicide levers from the brake levers which I like.  The look is so much better with out those levers and those levers are usually mushy anyways.  After polishing the brake levers look great, they will really look great with the new handlebar tape.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Brake Levers
Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Brake Levers
Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Brake Levers
Installed

The brake calipers are the usual Schwinn approved center pull Dia-Compe brakes.  I like the center pull brakes from this era, they work better then the side pull brake calipers did and they polish to better then new and look great.  I exploded the calipers, cleaned the components, polished the components and lubricated the pivot points and installed the brake calipers.  The brake calipers look fantastic installed against the black paint.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Brake Calipers
Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Brake Calipers
Exploded

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Brake Calipers
Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Brake Calipers
Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Front Brake Caliper - Installed

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Rear Brake Caliper - Installed

The derailleurs are nice Sun Tours, they are dirty and dull.  I disassembled the derailleurs and cleaned them, the polishing took sometime for there are a lot of nooks and crannies.  I reassembled the derailleurs and greased and lubricated all the moving parts.  The derailleurs look good installed and should function great.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Derailleurs - Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Derailleurs - Exploded

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Derailleurs - Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Front Derailleur - Installed

The seat post is in good condition, the seat post components not so much.  It took some work to get all the bolts and brackets looking good.  Installed the seat post looks good with the new brown synthetic leather saddle.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Seat Post - Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Seat Post - Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Seat Post - Complete

Last of the main frame components is the shift levers.  These shift levers are not original, originally the 1981 Sports Tourer had the stem mounted shift levers.  On the Sports Tourer frame there is no tab brazed to the frame to hold the clamp on shift elvers and just above where the shift levers mount are the cable stops for the shift cables that come from the stem mounted shift levers.  In the end the shift levers polished nice and after flushing and lubricating work great.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Shift Levers - Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Shift Levers
Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Main Components
Complete

The wheels fought me a little, nothing in specific they just seemed to not want to be restored.  The wheels where pretty dirty and the steel chrome rims had a lot of rust.  I hand polished and removed the rust from the wheel rims, there is some pitting from the rust but overall the wheel rims look fantastic considering where they started.  The spokes where a little rough but they eventually cleaned up okay with some work.  The rear wheel had a fairly bad curb dent, I was able to pound most of it out.  Overall the wheels turned out pretty good and look good, both wheels spin very nice.  The new Kenda gum wall tires fit the look of the Sports Tourer very nice.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Rear Wheel - Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub
Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Wheel Rim - Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Rear Wheel Hub
Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Rear Wheel Bearings
Packed

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Rear Wheel Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Front Wheel - Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Front Wheel Hub
Before

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Front Wheel Hub
Polished

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Front Wheel - Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
New Kenda K-35 Tires

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Wheels Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Wheel Rim
Complete

Last to do is to install the cables and install the handlebar tape.  I was a little worried that there would be problems with shift levers with out the shift lever nub that normally holds down tube shift levers but it went fine.  The Schwinn Sports Tourer tuned very nice on the stand I am oping to get to test ride it tomorrow as it will be 50 degrees and maybe the ice on the roads will melt and dry.

I am not a fan of this handlebar tape at all, it is way to short, it is covered with their logo and the tape on the back peels off with the backing.  It took some work and warming the tape with a heat gun to get it flexible and to lay flat but it was all worth it in the end, it looks fantastic with the classic look of the Sports Tourer.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - New Bits

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Cables - Installed

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Handlebar Tape
Installed

The Sports Tourer turned out very nice I am very happy with it.  I like the red details with the black paint.  I am very curious of how it rides and hope I get to.  The original fillet-brazed Sports Tourer that I restored sometime ago and I got to put a good amount of miles on had a great ride, it was extremely smooth.

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Complete

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Handlebars

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Front Brake

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Stem

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Shift Levers

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Drive Train

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration
Bicycle Complete - Rear Brake

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Rear Wheel

1981 Schwinn Sport Tourer Restoration - Bicycle Complete
Rear Wheel Rim