Well, my other fixed gear is out of service until I can get the dropouts changed. To commiserate, I swung by the thrift store to see if there was any good deals out there. Lucked out and found a great deal on a Schwinn World that was just my size. Picked it up for $30.00 and took it home to check it out.

No problems with it at all. I stripped it down to the frame to check it out. Everything was in great shape. So I took off the wheels, dérailleurs, and other unnecessary parts, and set it up as a fixed gear.

So far so good.

Only other thing I had to change out was the seat post. The first one was too short, a longer one made all the difference in the world. The second pic is with the old seat post.

Sweet....What thrift store?

Chris has Hickey-itis.....

the race is on....lol

Nothing like finding a diamond in the rough. Great deal on a nice ride.

what front rim is that? velocity?

Thanks for the responses.

The thrift store is the one on I-20 and McCart in south Fort Worth. Sometimes you find a good deal, most of the time you don't.

The front wheel is a Velocity Deep V. It's one took from another bike until my Velocity Fusions are finished. Hopefully this week (fingers crossed). Yeah I know the rims are mismatched, but you gotta do what you gotta do until the permanent stuff arrives. Still, it's a fun ride and I only have about $40.00 total invested in out-of-pocket expenses. Makes for a great around town bike.

Awesome find. You'd be hard pressed to get so lucky in my neck of SoCal. Too many bike freaks around here (like me) who recon those places like spies. Good for you!

I didn't want to be the first one to say this but, you've sure got one stubby stem there.

I didn't want to be the first one to say this but, you've sure got one stubby stem there.

Well, [insert pithy saying to overcompensate for inadequacies here]...

It's the stem that was on the bike. I had another quill that I had hoped to put on this bike, but I forgot that I used it in a build I did for my brother in law last month. Oh well. It's actually a really comfy ride, short stem and all. I think it's right at 70mm c-c. I've been eyeballing a few quill stems on e-bay, but haven't seen the one I want yet. We'll see what happens.

Many shops have boxes of stems they swapped out to make customers happier and are willing to sell for cheap.

Double check that stem- schwinns had a proprietary stem size for a long time (like .833 or something), and it is a pain in the @$$ to find one that fits.

It looks just like a 1" stem right until you try and put a 1" stem in the hole and it just doesn't quite fit... Hopefully, you got lucky and got one of the later ones...

Otherwise, that is one fantastic looking $30 bike!

I didn't want to be the first one to say this but, you've sure got one stubby stem there.
give him a break. its winter, it was outside and the wind was very chilly.
check it out in the summer. then comment.

It's not the size of the stem, it's how easily it slides into the steer tube. :D
OK, it' was the best I could come up with on short notice.

Sweet bike btw. Nice find.

How is the ride of the Schwinn? I have an old World Sport Frame that is almost completed, wheels should be here next week, all I need is a 1" threadless headset and seat post. This will be my first fixie so I decided against going store bought, I have been picking up peices here and there all winter, even though I have had the frame for 4 years and the fork came off 1999 Lemond.....

The Schwinn rides great. I've already changed a few things on it in the short time I've had it though. I decided to keep the shorter stem for now since it's pretty comfortable and I put some bull horns on there. The length of the stem makes it just about perfect for climbing out of the saddle.

The frame is incredibly comfortable. I can't wait until I have some time to do a few really long rides. These little 20-30 milers aren't long enough for me.

I'm having a new set of wheels built up for it now, Velocity Deep V's in chocolate brown with some Surly copper colored hubs. I think it'll turn out pretty nice.

The only issue I have had with the bike was that the bottom bracket was stripped out on the drive side. Something I didn't find out until later. Fixed it with JB Weld, which has worked so far... but I know it's not a permanent fix.

Probably explains why it ended up in a thrift store. However, a dedicated and motivated individual like myself won't let a little thing like that stop me. It's nothing a new Stronglight bottom bracket won't cure. They are threadless and once you find someone with the tool that chamfers the BB correctly, it's a pretty easy fix. YST also makes a threadless BB, but it doesn't seem to be as good of a quality. I could also use an old Mavic BB, but I've only seen one NOS on e-bay and he wanted over $100.00 for it.

This frame rides well enough that I think it's worth the few extra bucks to keep it on the road.