Comments on: Schwinn Madison Impressions, Part 2

By: brad

brad — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:44:18 +0000

Nah, you can have drillings for brakes and race on the track. You just can’t have brakes. Plenty of track bike have brake holes for road training, even some super high end ones.

By: TommyDanger

TommyDanger — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:28:46 +0000

I just ordered my Madison yesterday. This bike looks really clean, and I am really excited to start riding it. I am planning on riser bars as well. I really like the way this set up looks. As far as track legal goes, I was under the impression that you couldn’t have drillings for brakes to be on track, but I could be misimformed.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:46:03 +0000

I have a Madison and I love it soooo much. I’ve recently been interested in track racing and I was wondering if anyone knew if it was track legal or not.

By: Schwinn Madison - Testing Round Deux - Urban Velo

Schwinn Madison - Testing Round Deux - Urban Velo — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:27:43 +0000

[...] Velo offered to let me continue testing the Schwinn Madison first reviewed here and and then a little bit later here , I couldn’t wait to get my hands on [...]

By: Crowley

Crowley — Sun, 04 May 2008 02:04:01 +0000

Hi Thomas,
A quick stop at your local Scwinn dealer will tell for sure whether your steerer is a “shorty”. The steerer is the cylindrical portion of the fork that extends upwards through the head tube and meets with the stem (hence your bars). A longer steerer will protrude further through the head tube. This allows one to adjust the height of the stem (hence the bars.) Oftentimes a manufacturer will place a few spacers (imagine a ring or two on your finger) under the stem to occupy the space when the stem is in it’s highest position. These spacers are not functional simple aesthetic. If ever you wished to lower your stem (hence bar height) you’d remove your stem, slide one (or more) of these spacers up and off the steerer and then reinstall your stem. Too low? Loosen the stem and slide it up a tad. A shorter stem disallows this height adjustment. My understanding is that the Madisons with the shorter steerer had no spacers under the stem. The remainder had two representing about an inch and a half (3.75 cm) of adjustability. Seeing as you’ve replaced your stem and bars you may recall removing these if you did the wrenching yourself, they’re not evident in your snapshots. Whether any of this is of significance to you depends on your satisfaction with your bar height. If all is well there you need not be concerned. In fact your Maddie will be lighter by a few grams and will have a cleaner appearance. If ever you wanted a higher bar you could simply install a riser bar.
I find your modifications highly appealing. Do enjoy it safely.

Best wishes,
Crowley

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:09:13 +0000

Shiny Flu.
Here are a few pics of mine with fenders. I used SKS ChromoPlastics, clearance is tight but they look great!

http://gallery.casa-alegria.info/thumbnails.php?album=3

By: Shiny Flu

Shiny Flu — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:39:19 +0000

Just some background: Redline 925 Vs. Madison and living in Berlin fenders are rather handy with all the rain.. just wondering what fenders will you be putting on and how’s the clearence?

By: rick

rick — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:00:48 +0000

This is what Colnago says about curved vs. straight fork blades.

From their website…
Why does Colnago use a straight blade fork design?
Colnago’s straight blade fork was born in 1987 in collaboration with Ferrari engineers during a discussion about cold setting fork curvature. Ernesto Colnago and the Ferrari engineers discovered that while the curved fork didn’t absorb road vibrations and shocks, while the straight bladed fork did. From that testing, Colnago’s PRECISA fork was born, and subsequently, many of Colnago’s competitors adopted a straight blade fork.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:22:07 +0000

Got mine yesterday. So far I like it but I think I’ll end up going with straight bars as well. Can anyone let me know how I can tell if I’m affected by the short steerer oversight and how to get it replaced? I had fenders installed at my LBS. I’ll post pics if anyone shows interest.

By: Lazy Bike Commuter

Lazy Bike Commuter — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:41:24 +0000

I’m just glad they put braze ons on it….when they first came out you couldn’t mount a frickin water bottle.

I don’t know who wants to ride a bike and doesn’t ever get thirsty (track bike this makes sense, on anything not made strictly for the velodrome it just seems like fashionable idiocy).