First ride

Still need a steerer tube space and a rear brake... not sure what to do but it rides pretty well.

Freewheel

The wheel I found is a freewheel so a single speed freewheel is easy enough.

Bottom Bracket

I used a Truvativ adapter and a Sram GXP bottom bracket. The adapter didn't fit so some of the frame metal had to be removed with a dremel.

Fork and Front brake

I found a second hand fork that fits well. With a modern fork a simple v-brake will work. The fork also has disc tabs for the future.

Stem & bars

Headset

I bought a Retro Ryder headset from Genuine Bike Parts. Its an inexpensive headset that has been turned down to fit the head tube of older Schwinn's (pre-1980 I think). It pressed in easily with a long bolt. 

Frame

Schwinn middleweight frame with head badge (and really bad repaint) built in Chicago November 1977.

Project

After reading about the history of mountain biking in Charles Kelly's book Fat Tire FlyerI decided to give klunking a try. My first thought was to build a new frame with the old geometry but with new components, including 1 1/8th headtube, English Threaded (BSA) bottom bracket, 27.2mm seatpost and 135mm rear dropouts. Since getting a custom frame built, while a wonderful process, is really expensive and working with a Taiwan frame builder is not a simple process I decided to start with building a klunker from an old frame. The old Schwinn middleweight frames are a "dime a dozen" heavy with old fixtures but they are cool and supposed to ride well.

So, the plan is to use and old cantilever or straightbar frame and scrap together as many mountain bike parts as I can find, a newer 1 1/8th straight fork, bars and stem, new single speed crankset, some 26" wheels v-brake on the front and either a coaster, side-pull or drum brake on the rear. I'll start with the largest tires I can find (or studded tires) because the snow has just started falling and its 3 months of snow and ice on the trails. It would be nice to have some gears so maybe I'll try to reuse some 10 speed cassettes and a chain I have on hand. So, it will probably be a 1x10 klunker with rim brakes.