Tilting at Windmills - Schwinn's "Don Quixote" (Carl Huber)

 I recently came across this interesting little artwork - a Schwinn bicycles ad based on Pablo Picasso's "Don Quixote" (1955). I don't know when this artwork was created, though it does not appear particularly old and it certainly was made in the past few decades. This piece is a stretched canvas print with a small, wooden frame. It seems to me the kind of thing that would have been hanging as an ad in a bike shop somewhere, though it's nicer than any of the paper posters they used (it's real canvas on a wooden frame). 

 

Schwinn's "Don Quixote" by Carl Huber

 

Pretty neat piece. I like the original Picasso work as well (perhaps a bit better). It's nice though, having Don Quixote on a bike... It's an interesting piece of at least "referential art", though perhaps some would consider a form of "appropriation art" based on the likeness to Picasso's work. It's a homage to the Picasso sketch. I'm not much of an art critic, so I'll leave it to others to classify it... But I do enjoy the piece and I did at least know the original it was taken after.

[If you have the time or inclination, read Don Quixote - well worth the time and effort (even better - read it more than once)].

Picasso's "Don Quixote" (1955)

 

Schwinn Superior Gets New Tires

 I took my Schwinn Superior for a ride the other day and all went well... until about 3/4 of the way through the ride. I started noticing a cyclical "clunking" and bouncing from rear wheel. Usually this means either a rim is out of round or the tire has developed a bulge. 

I found the rim wasn't bad, but the tire had developed a bulge in one area.

The tires were a few seasons old. They're basic, Kenda white walls for Schwinn S5/S6 rims. This particular set has not aged all that well. The white walls have faded faster than usual and now the rear tire developed a bulge that made the bike uncomfortable to ride. 

So off the white walls went... and on went a set of low mileage, blackwall Kendas.

I had a set of Kenda black wall tires with low mileage on a set of spare Raleigh Clubman wheels, so I decided to repurpose those tires. Black wall tires would have been original to this particular bike anyway... so why not?

English-style "white tail" on the rear fender

The bike rode better with the new tires, but then I noticed the front wheel had gone out of true. So I trued the wheel... This bike has always been kind of a maintenance hog compared to my others. I'm not sure why. I've fiddled with the wheels and tires several times over the years. Fortunately the hubs are very good, smooth rollers. "Takes all kinds", I guess... 

Anyway, the bike is back on the road and the weather is getting warmer again...

 I also took some time to swap the saddlebag from a vinyl, black bag to a very nice, brown canvas Acorn bag. I love Acorn bags and fortunately accumulated a few extras before they went out of business.

 The lapel pin is from a period (1949-50) Pontiac. I like adding small, period touches like that. This is certainly an unusual bike, based on my experience - 1949 or 50 Superior.

And I'm not the only one out there enjoying some warmer weather...

Bullfrog on a lily pad

 

 

 

 

"They Don't Build Them Like They Used To" - Quality Control, Fit, and Finish in Vintage Bicycles

 The vintage bicycle enthusiast (or any antiques enthusiast) will often be heard saying, "they don't build them like they used to." In some ways, that is true. Old production methods often involved a greater degree of skilled labor, hand fitting, and final inspection by someone knowledgeable about the product. 

But not all vintage products were created equal. Some products were built for a particular price point, cutting corners on final fitting, relying on spot welds instead of proper brazing/welding, concealing mistakes with shiny paint, or trying to make up for defects with rubbish accessories. 

Other products were of a more premium type, showing carefully developed manufacturing methods, skilled fitting, and good quality control. 

Even in the premium products we sometimes find corners cut. I wrote previously about how some Schwinn frames built during World War II involved reduced final finishing so the rest of the factory could be devoted to meeting wartime production requirements for battlefield goods. 

But cutting corners in some places was not limit to wartime. 

 

Let's take this very, very nice 1949-50 Schwinn New World as an example. This bike was not 100% original as I found it, but it also shows no signs of abuse. In fact, the bearing surfaces all show minimal mileage. 

 

Disassembling and cleaning the bike, I find somewhat minimal brazing of the seat stays around the seat cluster, and messy brazing of the down tube to the bottom bracket. 

 

A fully finished braze joint is uniform and smooth all the way around, and of a semi-conical shape (it is shaped a bit like a volcano). This down tube joint shows almost no smoothing and is less than uniform. We can't blame a prior owner for this one though - it came from the factory this way! No one is perfect... 

I  believe on the better-made bikes, quality control has actually become more uniform compared to many years ago. Computer-aided production has helped prevent some of the mistakes and cut corners of the past. This is not to defend lesser, newer products though. There are plenty of cheap, junky new bikes out there. 

Unless mistakes on these old bikes reduce the safety or function of the bike, I would not worry about them. Braze joints were a hand-built thing, so they will all vary a little. So long as your bike has not been abused and the safety and function are intact, I'd gladly ride it. After all, they were meant to be ridden...