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

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:

The original bike weighed 23lb 15oz.

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

Pedal: LOOK Arc, Grey.