2000 schwinn homegrown

You are looking at a 2000 Schwinn Homegrown and it is widely considered one of the best hard tail frames ever made, but this one, is just a Cheap Bike...

In Canada, we have a couple of long-serving bike companies; Rocky Mountain has been in business since 1981. Norco has been in business since 1964. But American company Schwinn started business in 1896. 

Schwinn is worthy of an entire post for certain, but for now, we're going to talk about the five year run of Homegrown models from 1996 to 2001, and specifically this 2000, which is my entry for the 2026 Cheap Bike Build Off run by Max the Mullet Mechanic.

The CBBO is a challenge in which you have a budget of US$175 / CDN$238 to build a cool bike. No 'no-name' Temu, AliExpress, or Amazon parts are allowed, instead you're encouraged to visit your local used bike co-op for parts. And to be fair, people like myself who have bins full of parts have to adhere to a budget, assigning a price to parts that matches what your local co-op would charge.

Last year I built something a little off the wall, and I thought that it was cool as hell. But not many people agreed with me, so we're going a little more conventional this year. I got the Homegrown for free, on a Facebook Marketplace ad, and it was complete minus the wheels. I already had a pile of wheels though; for the rear I had a Shimano DX hub on an anodized Ritchey Vantage Expert rim, and the front is a Specialized Skraxle hub radially laced to an anodized Mavic 217 rim.

That rear hub is an M650 generation 7 speed hub, but it has an XT 8 speed cassette, so someone has modded it with an 8/9 speed freehub body. I didn't do it, but I've done this same mod to other hubs. This wheel came on a Nishiki I bought over the winter, and it was not the stock wheel on that bike, so I don't know what it's from.

The front wheel was surely from a Stumpjumper circa '98/99, and I nearly went with a older Manitou Pro-C because the rim matched the fork colour. As you can see, this fork was an OEM Dekerf fork - how it was taken off whatever Dekerf it came on, and ended up on a Schwinn Mesa that I bought for $50 is a real mystery - but, I decided to stick with the OEM SX-R. It's pretty smooth and would match better from an axle-to-crown standpoint.

Other stock parts include Shimano 9speed LX cranks, Octalink BB, LX 9 speed shifters, Titec seatpost, stem, and an SDG seat. The Avid single digit brakes levers are stock, but the Shimano V-brakes are mismatched.  The catalog says it should have a Titec Hell-bent 9 degree flat bar, but it had a regular Titec Enduro 5 degree bar, which is lame. Those Hell-bent bars are the best.

The big changes I made here are with the bar and stem. Going with a BMX cockpit is the popular setup, but I don't like it from an aesthetic standpoint. I tried a couple different setups, but settled on a short Uno stem and Titec Ringleader riser bar. The Ringleader is from the DH school for sure. It's tall and black and Titec which was always the Homegrown choice.

I didn't really do much to this bike. No baskets, no racks, no fenders - there's no way to mount them anyway. Honestly, I've built one bike in my life with a rack, and I never used it. 

I also kept the front derailleur. I don't really agree with removing them just because. Like Puddin' says - I ain't afraid, momma never raised no punk.

What I did was build a bike that does what I need at this stage in my life. Gravel riding, very light trails, ride downtown to chill at the lake or the brewery. I can swap to some genuine MTB tires if I want to see how it handles trails. Or not. I have one of the most capable trail hardtails ever built so it would be academic.

I got this frame with all the parts on it, except the wheels, for nothing on Facebook. I'm not certain if I have to assign a price to it though. I got it fair and square on Marketplace - no sweetheart deal, no buddy giving me the bike, so I don't know if I have to assign a value to it. 

The rules state that even if you're using parts you already had, you have to assign a value to them, so to that end, my budget here is $156 for wheels, tires, tubes, cassette, stem, bar, and grips.  It becomes $206 if I have to put a value on the frame. I can bring up a bunch of complete bikes for sale here at $50 or so, so I think this is fair.

Either way I'm well under budget, and my actual spend is $0. Which brings me to the issues I have with the contest. I understand the need to be fair for people who may not have bins full of parts from years of buying junk bikes and fixing them up.

I don't need a bike co-op, I am a bike co-op.

Because we're needing to assign a value to all the parts I've used, I've found that it's not possible to do this challenge on a bare frame. I've built a Gerber road single speed from a frame, and it's so much cooler than the Schwinn, but it cost $325 based on the CBBO rules. There's just no way I could put that bike together for $238

I feel like the reason I'm able to do this at all is that I refuse to throw things away. Eventually I'll find a use for stuff. It might take five years, but I'll find a bike to put parts on. I like that the rules open it up to anyone wanting to start out doing this, but I feel that it penalizes to some degree, those that have been doing this for a while.

But whatever, it's all for fun. The contest is coming soon, so keep an eye on Instagram for details.

@t_e_a_m_c_o_w
​@mull3tmechanic