Handlebar Swap for 1959 Schwinn Traveler

 

When I first rebuilt and tested this 1959 Schwinn (it arrived here as a bike core and I built it up), I used a set of Schwinn New World tourist style bars from the late 1940s or early 1950s. I recently acquired a couple nice sets of Schwinn "north road style" bars, which are more appropriate for a 1950s or early 60s era Traveler. One of these sets came off a scrapped 1962 Traveler, a closer match for this 1959 bike.

Handlebars for Schwinn three speeds are trickier to get right than those for a Raleigh. The reason is that Raleigh handlebar stems generally have more range of adjustment than the smaller, forged stems used on many American bikes of the period. The American stems tend to be rather short. The result is that your handlebar drop and reach becomes a primary means of setting up the bike to fit on the Schwinn. 

 

In this case, the north road-style Schwinn bars work nicely. The short-lived 1959-60 forged stem is kind of short, but Schwinn's north road bars from this period have a little more rise and pull back compared to Raleigh bars, so it works out to a good fit.