I know how much you all can’t get enough SDGCSs and Front Freewheels.  Here’s our second of the day. This is a 1980ish Schwinn Caliente sent in by Art F.

Here’s a Schwinn Caliente that was made around 1980 . I haven’t done a serial number search . I picked it up in a thrift store around here for $30 on a 50% off day for furniture . They include bicycles in their furniture department??? Usually Schwinns are priced at $150 so even with the 50% off I don’t touch them since I can’t inspect because they put on a shelf 12 ft off the ground . I refurbish bikes and sell them on craigslist DC . I didn’t even realize what I had bought until I brought it home and started looking it over. It has the front freewheel system and positron rear derailleur which I had seen before on old Huffy’s and the front freewheel is also used on autoshift bikes with no shift lever and a derailleur controlled by a sliding weight that moves the derailleur to the higher gears as the wheel picks up speed. . This positron system was different because the shift cable wasn’t multistrand just a flexible thin rod about an 1/8 ” thick . . The rear wheel had a serious bend and I swapped it out . The previous owner must have been planning to make this bike into a plush city cruiser as they had put on 27 X1-3/8 Tioga Bloodhoud tires which cost about $30 each and a plush Axion Super Soft wide seat that probably costs about $50 and the rear aluminum rack . But it looks like the refurbishment stopped there because the rear wheel was so seriously bent that I couldn’t straighten it or even get the brakes to work . So I swapped out the wheel and hoped the chain and rear cogs would work together . The cogs don’t freewheel but are just screwed together where they will slip bacwards if a very heavy force is applied. Guess that is to prevent flying chain shrapnel if the front freewheel ever seized up. Anyway I put it on craigslist for $170 and got nasty attack bosts saying ” that Schwinn was the worst slug ever produced by Schwinn and it was only worth about $45. I rented it out for the summer to an woman who needed a bike for 3 month on an intern job in Washington telling her that I’ll buy it back for $120 when she was through so it would cost her $50 for 3 months. Got a call from her a week later saying springs were flying off the bike and it was making creaking noises. So I told her I would swap her a Fuji more suited for the century rides she was planning to do. Seems the springs were hooks from a handlebar bag that somehow got caught in the crankset and then came flying back at her while riding . The creaking was the brake which either had hardened pads or need a little twisting of the brake arms . So it is back on the market again . I think it is a cool looking around town bike ideal for grocery shopping or short commutes . By the way , I always put in my ads that I’ll take trade ins . I pick up some interesting stuff that way like when someone traded in a 60s Raleigh Grand Prix with simplex deailleurs and cottered crank for a spray painted Roadmaster mountain bike .
regards,
Art F

Thanks Art