Need a Schwinn bike expert! Or maybe just...

[Tx Bohemian]

...someone who has experience in rear wheel, cassette, derailuer work.

I have an American-made mid-80 Schwinn cruiser 6 speed that the derailuer just "up and malfunctioned" on me!!
(actually it was out of adjustment and to get it into "low" gear I needed to gently kick the derailuer over a tad, but evidently this last time I booted it a little too hard and it ended up in the spokes and pretty well mangled everything back there)

The best I can tell by the serial # is this bike is 30 yrs old.  It already had a couple of broken spokes on the rear wheel which I was needing to replace anyway.
It has a Shimano derailuer with a "lever type" selector on the handlebars.  With this type of selector you have to guess what gear your in or look down at the gears to see where the chain is (as most of us probably had this experience).

A couple of years ago I bought the wife a China-made Schwinn 7-speed from Wally world which also has a Shimano derailuer but it has a "cylinder-type" selector on the bars which has the gears numbered.  I like this set up MUCH better!

 
Does anyone know if it's possible, and/or how much work and money it would take, to adapt the "newer style" derailuer and selector to this old bike?

Or is there a web site, like this Valk site, I can go and ask this question?

[john]

  

derailuer ... kind'a delicate ... kick it from the other side  ...       
maybe worth a peek      
schwinn dealer   94 miles from Victoria  
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[solo1]

"kick the derailuer".  Wow! you definitely need a good bike repair tech.  That's sorta like beating the shift lever on a Valk with a sledgehammer   .

[Joe Hummer]

No experience with your bike but I have tinkered with a few years ago.  Most of the derailers have adjustment screws on them that allow you to tweak the position slightly.  This would be needed to take up stretch in the cables.  I would turn my bike upside down and have someone spin the pedals then tweak the screws until I got it where i wanted it.  Then check the different gears to make sure it all worked right.  if you can't adjust the derailer where you need it, you may have to take up the slack in the cable to give you more adjustment.  Also, make sure the derailer is sufficiently lubed...and doesn't have a lot of grime/road dust/dirt/sand/whatever in it.  And make sure your cables are lubed.  Cleaned up nicely, it should be back to full and reliable operation. 

Just my penny worth. 

Joe

[Momz]

A lot of derailier problems are due to a grime build up and lack of lubrication.
Try cleaning with WD40 and lubricating with Tri-Flow. Clean and lube the handlebar control and lube the cable also

[john]

                          ???                          "  but evidently this last time I booted it a little too hard and it ended up in the spokes and pretty well mangled everything back there"                   P O S                       

                 

[Tx Bohemian]

"kick the derailuer". 

But you left out the "gently" part!!


Thanks for the help guys.
I've been to the website last night but I didn't find the answer to my question there.

And as far as cleaning, the derailuer is pretty well bent to crap.  Probably with enough time and patience I can maybe straighten it out but since I need to change the wheels anyway and wanting to upgrade the shifting too I thought this would be the time to do it.

[Pete]

Yes you can add the handlebar controls for an indexed shift. I did my wifes Schwinn years ago.
I do not remember the cost but. it was not that much or I would not have done it.

As for the bent arm - depends on how bad you bent it. Good luck.