June 28, 2010

Schwinn Madison Project and question

so the next bike I'm on is this '85 Schwinn Madison that I bought in Philly.
IMG_3393

The first thing I did when checking it out after an initial visual inspection (and something you should always do when thinking about purchasing an older bicycle) was move the seatpost and stem to make sure that they move freely and aren't seized. They moved great so I was reasonably sure the bottom bracket would be a similar situation.

Well the bike came back on Friday and this weekend I stripped it down to make sure
IMG_3464

And this is what the inside of the BB looked like
IMG_3466
notice anything about it? there's a fuck ton of paint and absolutely zero grease. I'm guessing that the paint kept it from seizing up, but holy shit, was that common back then? Talk about playing dangerously.

I also grabbed some shots of the inside of the BB shell which I think does a good job of illustrating what a mid line lugged 80's bike typically looks like on the inside. The Madison is rad, but it sure wasn't an artisan build.
IMG_3470

I'm hoping to get it done this week. I'm rebuilding the headset, Framesavering the frameset, installing a sealed BB, and putting on different wheels and chainring.

Which brings me to the question: does anyone out there know if these 80's Sugino GLP's 144BCD are JIS or ISO tapered?

holla at me if you know

4 comments:

fuzzy said...

JIS or ISO?
From what I can gather from the interwebs, it seems that would be a JIS spindle. I'd take the stock BB and a caliper and compare it to a shimano spindle of the same length and an ISO spindle of the same length just to be certain. Also just compare how far the spindle seats into the arm.

dmg said...

Mine have always been run on a 107 JIS BB, although I got them used.

Anonymous said...

Not only was the grease/paint scenario common THEN, it still would be common if not for the fact that everything has cartridge BB's of one sort or another in them now.

The first thing you used to have to do was take apart a new bike and make sure that the bearings had grease. Like at all. Everything came with caged ball bearings with a pinky nail full of the cheapest grease you've ever seen. And that was the nice bikes ...

Anonymous said...

bike twin, whut's up?
i don't know much about any "JIS-ISO" stuff, but i've had a Miche BB in my madison for 4 years and it works just fine. enjoy it man, the madison is a rad bike.
jonny