South Prairie Custom Cycles
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- What year is my Schwinn bicycle?
- What year is my classic NON-Schwinn bicycle?
- What is my bike worth?
- Would you build me a bike like yours?
- Where do you find all your cool bikes?
- Where do you find the aftermarket parts for your bikes?
- Where can I find geniune Schwinn parts?
- Where do you find those huge apehanger handlebars?
- Are any of your bikes for sale?
- What's the best way to free rusted/stuck parts?
- How do you remove grips that are stuck on the handlebars?
1. What year is my Schwinn bicycle?
First you must find the serial number on your Schwinn bicycle. The serial number will be located in one of three places on the bike. Under the bottom bracket, on the left rear fork end, or on the bottom of the head tube. After you find the serial number, use this Schwinn serial number chart and match it up. Easy as that.
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2. What year is my classic NON-Schwinn bicycle?
A very good question and one that's not easily answered. Most brands of bikes other than Schwinn and Columbia don't have serial number charts to go by to date the bikes. So unless you happen to know the original owner of the bike to ask what year it is, your pretty much reduced to scouring the net looking for bikes of the same make that look similar and estimating a date from there. If you want to shell out the cash, you could purchase one of many books on the market that has the history and pictures of different makes of bikes. This would probably be your best bet.
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3. What is my bike worth?
To put it bluntly, your bike is worth whatever someone is willing to give you for it at any given time. There is just no possible way for us to tell you what your particular bike is worth. Values vary greatly from region to region and from bike to bike. Other factors such as overall condition of the bike, brand, model, men's or women's also contribute to the value. Your mint condition Schwinn Breeze might be worth $150 in California, but to us here in central Illinois, it's a $10 parts bike no matter what the condition. I don't really recommend this, but you could also check Ebay for similar bikes like yours and see what they end up selling for on there. I don't recommend it because it seems as if buyers on Ebay have more money than brains and that tends to make the final selling price misleading. There are also appraisal services out there, such as "Ask The Appraiser", that would be happy to give you their estimated worth of your bike ........ for $19.95.
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4. Would you build me a bike like yours?
Sorry, but no. We hardly have enough time to build bikes for ourselves. We would however be more than glad to give you some pointers, ideas or any other help that could be had through email.
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5. Where do you find all your cool bikes?
Quite honestly, a lot of times it's pure luck. Try your local thrift store, yard sales, check your local paper, even scrap yards end up with old bikes occasionally. And any chance you get, go to bike shows and meets. You usually won't get as good a deal at a bike show as you would at the thrift store, but there's a whole lot better selection!
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6. Where do you find the aftermarket parts for your bikes?
Lovelylowrider is a very good source for aftermarket bicycle parts. We've purchased from them many times and have never had any problems. Their prices are reasonable and the quality of the products is good too. Another good source is Aztlan cycles. Many of the same parts but shipping is a little cheaper. You can find the links to those sites on our LINKS page.
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7. Where can I find genuine Schwinn parts?
Supplies of genuine Schwinn parts are dwindling quickly. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find Schwinn parts, either used or NOS. Memory Lane Classics (link to their site is on our links page) has a nice selection of parts for Schwinn and other bikes, but you'd need to contact them to see if they have what your looking for inparticular. Junk parts bikes and a good source of genuine Schwinn parts for those of us on a limited budget. Most junk bikes still have usable bolts, nuts, seatpost clamps, etc, etc left on them. Once again, you could try Ebay. NOS parts turn up on there from time to time if you've got the $$$.
8. Where do you find those huge apehanger handlebars?
Phatcycles. The link to their site is on our links page.
9. Are any of your bikes for sale?
Yes, a few could be purchased for the right price. And we do occasionally have a frame or selected parts that we'd be willing to part with as well. Email us with what your looking for and we may or may not be able to help you out. As stated on the For Sale page, we do not ship complete bicycle if you were to purchase one. We would however ship parts. But shipping is getting pretty expensive and you , the buyer, would be paying for shipping of any and all parts that we might have to sell. So I'd recommend trying to find your parts locally before emailing us.
10. What's the best way to free rusted/stuck parts?
Our favorite product is a lubricating spray called "Kroil". Spray some on that stuck neck or whatever part is stuck, let it set a few minutes and usually it breaks free. Be warned, Kroil is pretty expensive and not readily available everywhere. If you don't have a lot of cash to spend on penetrating lubricant, then we also recommend using a product called PB Blaster. It's a lot cheaper and almost as good, but requires quite a bit more time to work. If that fails, try heating up the part with a torch. Kids, please have parental supervision for this! If the torch doesn't get it unstuck, then usually the part must be sacrificed. Get out the sawzall and start looking for replacement parts.
11. How do you remove grips that are stuck on the handlebars?
A : If you don't want to keep or re-use the grips, cut them off with a utility knife. One slice down the side and they'll come right off. If you do want to keep the grips, take a small flat screwdriver and slide it down between the grip and the handlebar so that there's an opening about 1/4 inch wide. Into the opening, spray a little soapy water. (I keep a spray bottle with a soapy water mixture in it in the shop just for this.) Move the screwdriver around inside the grip a little bit to move around the soapy water and then remove the screwdriver. Give the grip a twist and it should slide right off. If it doesn't, spray in some more soapy water and twist again. I've used this method MANY times over the years and have never had a problem getting off grips I wanted to keep.
Another method that we've used, but found that it's not 100% effective (and quite awkward honestly) is using compressed air shot into the holes in the end of the grips. Using this method, you shoot air from your compressor into the hole in the end of one grip while sealing up the hole on the opposite grip. Sometimes one of them pops off, sometimes it won't. If one does come off, then you seal up the hole in the end of the handlebar without the grip on it (I've used my thumb), and shoot in some more air. If your lucky, the other grip pops off. If not, you either find a better way to seal the hole in the end of the handlebar, or use the first method I mentioned. As I said, I've found this method to not be 100% effective. Especially if the handlebars have much rust on them underneath the grips. But when it does work, it is very quick, not at all messy and to be quite honest, pretty cool!
More FAQ's to come, check back later!