SchwinnBikeForum

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#11
Introduce Yourself / A re-introduction
Last post by DesmoDog - Feb 12, 2025, 11:56 AM
Greetings,

I was here before with the same username. Glad to be back.

For a recap, I worked in a Schwinn shop ("Tonka Schwinn" in Minnesota) as a mechanic for about ten years in the '70s-'80s. After getting my first "career job" out of college I stopped riding, but have started to get back into it in the past few years.

I've kind of got a "thing" for 3-speeds and other IGHs even though I never had one as a kid. More recently I've put a '58ish Racer back on the street, and taken a Typhoon frame out of the trash and built it up as a 2-speed kickback klunker.

There is also a more modern "Schiwnn" Sanctuary 7 that was bought just to see how good/bad cheap bikes had become. I was pleasantly surprised by it acutally (after rebuilding virtually EVERYTHING on it) and it eventually got a 5 speed Sturmey IGH plus other stuff. It's a fun bike too but probably not all that fitting for the forum.

Anywhos... I probbaly won't post much but it's fun to poke around and see the bikes from my days as a mechanic.
#12
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 04:21 AM
The Many Faces of Schwinn vol 1.
by Barry E Grey
2019
ISBN 978-1-64606-446-3

Schwinn used to be an oem manufacturer in addition to selling bikes labeled as Arnold & Schwinn.  Just like most other American bike manufacturers Huffy, AMF, Murray, etc, they provided bikes to just about any retailer or other company that wanted their own brand of bikes without having a factory to make their own bikes.  Typically the only difference was the head badge art work, decals and paint colors.  Schwinn made bikes for many hundreds of department stores, hardware stores, automotive tire companies, distributors, wholesalers, and so on.  It wasn't until Frank W Schwinn took over the company and declared that Schwinn would only sell Schwinns.  That selling as other brands undercut Schwinn's reputation. This was in 1948 so before most of us were around.

Did Schwinn keep records of all the brands they made?  Perhaps but a fire in the Chicago facility destroyed most of the records so we will never know. 

Barry Grey's sizeable book touches on some of the brands by way of head badges that he has collected.  Collecting head badges is a niche part of bike interests.  Barry's book really gets in to certain brands often with info supplied by others.  My own first exposure of badge collecting was at the Carl & Clarice Burgwardt's museum in Buffalo New York.  There were many hundreds of metal head badges, mounted like deer heads, and framed.  So many were eastern European brands that we've never heard of and are lost to unrecorded history.  I was initially appalled that so many bikes were destroyed.  I'm sure many of the Burgwardt museum badges came from bikes melted down for the war efforts.  Now, after running a bike coop for years, I have a sizeable collection of my own removed from bikes we scraped out.  Most are quite common and the bikes were nothing special like Chinese made Schwinns or Mongoose. So many new bikes have stickers instead of metal or plastic badges.

There is a collection of badges at flickr with over 7,000 photos.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/bicycleheadbadges/


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#13
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 03:09 AM
Build Your Own Klunker
How to turn your Vintage Schwinn bicycle into a 26" BMX Cruiser
2014
ISBN 978-1502783028

Highly detailed, covering every part on the conversions.

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#14
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 02:57 AM
Schwinn Middleweight Catalog Compilation 1955-1970
by Geoff Greene
published 2012
#115 of 226 copies
ISBN 9781482041965

Consists mainly of catalog pages for Middleweight Schwinns.

Seems rather incomplete considering the Middleweights were manufactured to the closing of the Chicago factory in 1983 and beyond.  Needs a second edition with the next 14 years added on.


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#15
Ebay & Craigslist / Backwards Fork Gallery
Last post by acg_schwinn - Feb 12, 2025, 01:30 AM
I couldn't remember which group held this topic in the old Forum, but this looks to be as good a spot as any to resume it. Found on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/365393147507

#16
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 01:17 AM
Schwinn Built Heavyweights 1946 - 1964
The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Heavyweight Schwinns and Schwinn-built B.F.Goodrich Bicycles & Parts
By Geoff Green
2012, 2013
#219 of 426 copies.
ISBN 9781481872805

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rear cover, an inventory manager's nightmare.

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And more GOLD.

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Buster Brown comic book issue #34

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And later issue #42 features a ladies Corvette!


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#17
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 01:06 AM
Schwinn-Built Bicycles Accessories - Parts 1946 1948 1952 1953
by Geoff Greene
#82 of 100
published in year I'm guessing is 2012
reproductions of 4 different years of Schwinn catalogs:
  1946 Schwinn bicycles
  1948 Schwinn Bicycles and parts
  1952 Guaranty w/Schwinn Bicycles
  1953 Schwinn Bicycles

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#18
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 12:36 AM
the Standard Catalog of Schwinn Bicycles 1986 - 2004
By Doug Mitchel
published 2004 by kp Books
ISBN 0-87349-884-4

What really stands out in this book are the photographs.  First rate professional studio shots.
Covers more interesting Schwinns and tries to cover the full history to date which is far too much for 1 book to hope to do well.

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some tidbit in the book:

The one of a kind "GOLD Varsity"

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they spelled Jacks name wrong in the caption.  Here is his obituary. Former Schwinn dealer in Michigan.
https://obits.mlive.com/us/obituaries/grandrapids/name/jack-heuvelhorst-obituary?id=10904530


and My Gold Varsity.

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#19
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 12:08 AM
Classic Schwinn Bicycles
by William Love
published in 2003 by Motorbooks Inc
ISBN 0-7603-1563-9

nice color photo of an AutoCycle on the cover but all the photos in the book are black & white.  Looks like the authors opinion of "Classic" is any bike that has Schwinn on it. So it includes many boring bikes.

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#20
Schwinn Library / Re: The Schwinn library book s...
Last post by rickpaulos - Feb 12, 2025, 12:03 AM
Schwinn Bicycles
by Jay Pridemore and Jim Hurd
1996 by Motorbooks
printed in Hong Kong
ISBN 0-7603-0127-1

German immigrant Ignaz Schwinn launched the company that bears his name in 1895 and set the bicycling standard in the U.S. for decades. Here the Black Phantom, Varsity, Paramount, and Fastback come alive through lavishly illustrated with original archival material, much of it from Chicago's Bicycle Museum of America. 250 photos, 200 in color.)

A quick overview of the Schwinn history in a very pretty publication with nice clear color photos.

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