First off, it's red. mountain bikes, at least in 1986, weren't supposed to be red. Sebring Red, to be exact, contrasted with white enamel hubs, brakes and levers, white Viscount Terra saddle and white grips (Bicycle Guide magazine quipped: "Be sure to wear your white gloves to keep the grips pristine.") The point is that after one season of off-road use, white grips and saddle will look--well, not so white anymore. One reviewer in Bicycle Guide called this entry-level Schwinn a "pretty bike," sarcastically, perhaps, and after nearly forty years, it still is. The flashy machine you see here looks as though it has rolled off the Schwinn showroom floor for the first time. Like most "mountain bikes" with raised center-ridge tires, sold to the general public in the 1980s, this bike never saw a mountain, and judging by its near-perfect condition, not a lot of road, either.
My Dad, brother and I got into mountain bikes in 1987, buying our Schwinns from Hack's Cycle in Madison, Wisconsin (our father bought a dark green High Sierra and David and I bought Cimarrons), so we didn't see this model until years later, and never with the original white saddle. Today you will find 1986 red Sierras, sometimes converted to gravel bikes, with various upgrades, but this is the first unmolested example (a curious term to apply to what is, after all, a tool) I have seen. So when this all-original bicycle appeared online nearly forty years later, I had to have it. Of course I can't ride it. I have to preserve it. What if someone else had bought it, and actually ridden it? The pristine white Viscount Terra saddle would be "ruined" in a matter of days. Is this insane? Yes, it is probably insane. But if you have read this far, you might understand.
My Dad, brother and I got into mountain bikes in 1987, buying our Schwinns from Hack's Cycle in Madison, Wisconsin (our father bought a dark green High Sierra and David and I bought Cimarrons), so we didn't see this model until years later, and never with the original white saddle. Today you will find 1986 red Sierras, sometimes converted to gravel bikes, with various upgrades, but this is the first unmolested example (a curious term to apply to what is, after all, a tool) I have seen. So when this all-original bicycle appeared online nearly forty years later, I had to have it. Of course I can't ride it. I have to preserve it. What if someone else had bought it, and actually ridden it? The pristine white Viscount Terra saddle would be "ruined" in a matter of days. Is this insane? Yes, it is probably insane. But if you have read this far, you might understand.
1986 Schwinn Sierra ©Daniel Dahlquist