1988 Schwinn Circuit
Part Diary, Part Technical Manual, Part Tips & Tricks

Schwinn Circuit

For the past year or so, I've been wanting to get a bike with a complete Shimano Santé gruppo. Not sure exactly why, maybe it's because this was the "new" gruppo when I was getting into cycling, so it received a lot of press coverage at the time; also that the components are a unique pearl white color; also that the parts have a lot of nice aero touches to it; also that its a very high quality gruppo, wedged between Dura Ace and Shimano 600 Ultegra. Only made from 1987-9, getting the parts individually on eBay could get expensive, so the best way was to find a bike that came with the complete gruppo. From what I could gather, the two main bikes I could find were the 1988-9 Schwinn Circuit or the Miyata 1200.

So as I was preparing for a visit to Los Angeles over 4th of July weekend, I checked out craigslist to see if anything is interesting in Southern California. I see an ad for a Schwinn Circuit, but it was located way out in Riverside, so I didn't give it much thought. When I got into town, I called the seller on Saturday morning to ask him a few questions, the frame was probably a 58 cm, the entire gruppo seemed to be intact, and there was no rust on the bike - seemed pretty promising. The weekend goes on until we're having a family dinner on Monday night and I thought it was now or never. I called the seller, Gus, and said if I leave now at 8:00, I'll probably arrive in Riverside a little after 9:00pm, he said that would be fine. So I get my cousin Ryan to drive, we find an ATM to get some cash, then we head out for Riverside in his GTI; we find the house, glanced over the bike, handed Gus the cash, and we were our way back within 5 minutes. Did the whole ordeal in less than two hours, so on July 5, 2010, I became the owner of an original, slightly worn, and very dirty Circuit. Can't wait to see how she cleans up.

7/11/2010 - two things missing on the bike, the Schwinn headbadge and the Santé headset cover - both items are purely decorative. So I pump up the tires, center the brakes, adjust the handlebars, set the saddle height, and I off I went for a quick ride. The frame is definitely on the upper size limit for me, but it felt pretty comfortable. Later that night, I began to disassemble the bike to get it ready for cleaning.

8/2/2010 - after cleaning everything, I realized the paint on the frame was too faded and the chrome on the fork was only ok. Since it is about 3-4cm too large for me anyway, I sold the frameset on craigslist The Santé gruppo actually cleaned up pretty well, so now everything is in a box, waiting for the right frameset to build out..

Here are the specs:

Frame: Schwinn Circuit, 58cm, Candy Red (color code 010-19) with chrome plated seat and chainstays. Serial Number: D902044. Columbus SL Double-Butted Chrome-Moly (SP down tube on 58cm and larger frames) with Tange aero seat stays.
Fork: Large Aero, fully sloping crown with forged dropouts. Full chrome plated.
Rims: Wolber TX Profil with hard anodized finish, 32h.
Hubs: Shimano Santé low-flange, 32h with 14GA stainless steel spokes, 126mm rear spacing.
Tires: Specialized Mondo Sport, 700x23c, wire bead, white.
Cassette: Shimano 7spd, 13-23T.
Cranks: Shimano Santé FC-5000, forged alloy. 52x42 Biopace chainrings, 170mm, 130 BCD with special chainring bolts.
Bottom Bracket: Shimano Santé BB-5000, Chrome-Moly, sealed. 108mm axle.
Front Derailer: Shimano Santé FD-5000, clamp-on, Leading Action.
Rear Derailer: Shimano Santé RD-5001, SIS.
Shifters: Shimano Santé SL-5000, SIS.
Headset: Shimano Santé, Alloy, Sealed.
Chain:
Shimano Uniglide.
Stem: Kalloy KB-120, 1" quill, black chrome, 110mm. Should have came with Cinelli 1-E, 1" quill, 110mm.
Handlebar: Cinelli 1-E. 39.5cm width, 11.0cm reach, 14.0cm drop.
Brakes: Shimano Santé BR-5000, SLR.
Brake Pads: Shimano
Brake Levers: Shimano Santé BL-5001 Aero with white hoods
Pedal: Shimano PD-M520 SPD, black.
Seatpost: SR CRE-100, 27.2mm, alloy.
Saddle:

Ratio
13
14
15
17
19
21
24
52
7.9
7.3
6.8
6.0
5.4
4.9
4.3
42
6.3
5.9
5.5
4.9
4.3
3.9
3.4

The original bike weighed 23lb 15oz.

The following are OE parts that I am currently not using:

Pedal: LOOK Arc, Grey.