Schwinn Continental 3 Speed

A few shots of this 1947 Schwinn Continental on the road this afternoon. We're in a spell of summer-like weather, with relatively high humidity and temperatures in the mid-80s every day.

I won't complain - it has stayed dry enough to ride. The Schwinn Continental represented a relatively luxurious light roadster from Schwinn. The frame is Cro-Mo and hand fillet brazed together. It has forged dropouts front and rear brazed into the frame. It was a step below the Paramount and a step above the New World.

There is also a rather liberal use of aluminum parts on this bike for that period - aluminum front hub, aluminum stem neck, double-butted spokes, and stainless steel rims.

Despite the luxurious touches for an American-made bike of the time, Schwinn continued to use the old-style quadrant shifter from Sturmey Archer until 1948. In 1948, Schwinn swapped to a the "silver face" trigger shifter.

The Schwinn roadsters often got their own, adult-oriented badges instead of the more ornate badges aimed at kids on the balloon tire bikes. These plain but elegant badges were on the Continental.