A Schwinn Traveler That Wasn't - Evolution Before Mass Production

In the early 1950s, the three speed and similar Schwinn lightweight/utility bikes had reached a cross roads. Schwinn's push in the late 1930s and into the 1940s to market British-style, Made-in-USA touring and utility bikes with to adults in the US had hit the market wall that was the late 1940s and early 1950s automotive boom.

It was in this environment in the early 1950s that Schwinn revised its era three speed and utility bike offerings as well as the way it marketed those bikes. The  New World and unusual post-war Superior (not to be confused with the upscale "Superior" made before WWII) were replaced. The upscale fillet brazed Continental was scaled back compared to its late 1940s version.

One of the bikes that stepped into this mid- and up-scale market void for Schwinn was the "Traveler" or "World Traveler" (not to be confused with much later World Traveler bikes made in Japan). 

But the early ads for the Traveler are not quite the bike we know today. These early Travelers mixed elements of the earlier Continental with what we know today as Traveler type parts.

 

Above we see what the Traveler might have started as, but ultimately what was never to be: a mixture of Continental and Traveler bike elements. The bike has the low-profile fenders styled after the Continental, as well as the three-arm chain ring of the Continental. But it also has the one-piece crank we associate with the Traveler. The bike also has the Sturmey Archer quadrant shifter we associate with 1940s Continental models, but the English-style accessories we associate with the Traveler. The head badge is round, similar to the Continental.

A second early ad shows the same bike - well, almost the same bike. The quadrant shifter is gone and now there is a handlebar shifter. Also note how the fenders are Continental in style but allegedly made of chrome rather than stainless steel, like the early production Travelers.

These ads also show a shift from the more adult ads of the late 1940s, which showed stars such as Ronald Reagan and Humphrey Bogart on Continental models. These 1950s ads are more youth-oriented, even though the bikes still were diamond or step-over framed and could be ridden by adults. Schwinn sensed the way the market was headed in the 1950s. 

In the end, this hybrid of the Continental and the Traveler was not to be. The Traveler underwent some changes and the production model we know today was different. The standard Schwinn "clover" chain ring was used, as were "shark blade" fenders similar to other Schwinn bikes. The first few years of Travelers had chrome fenders, while later in the 1950s they changed to stainless steel.

The ad above has a student-oriented motif and shows the production Traveler we are familiar with today. This includes the clover chain ring, finned front fender and handlebar shifter.

As with so many other bikes, the Traveler evolved between its initial design on paper to its mass production form in the early 1950s.