1957 Schwinn Traveler, and 1946 - 47 Schwinn Continental

 

We've had a few nice evenings for rides around here lately. I wait all winter for this kind of weather - warm, but not too hot or humid. I'll ride in heat and humidity, but moderate temperatures are certainly more comfortable. The only down side is the mosquitos, horse flies, and deer flies are back out, as are the ticks (those are awful in particular).

Let's start with a couple shots of the 1957 Schwinn Traveler. This is a bike with a combination of brazed joints and welded joints. It's a 23 inch frame. It's heavy but durable and a pretty comfortable bike. The 23 inch frame on 26 inch wheels is probably my favorite bike size.

I recently found neat lapel pin with the logo from a 1957 Ford Thunderbird. I figured it was a good match for this bike. If you've never seen an early (1955-57 era), small Thunderbird, look them up... really handsome and sporty cars for their time.

 

Secondly, I have the 1946-47 Schwinn Continental. I'm not sure exactly which year this one is. It's not one of the earliest Continentals (those had New World style, plain paint), but it's fairly early for a bike with the ornate paint and decal scheme. It has an un-dated Sturmey Archer hub with black hardware, which is consistent with a bike made not long after the end of WWII. 

 

This bike is a 22 inch frame size, which is OK, though I prefer the 23 inch frame size. The 22 inch frame is at the bottom end for what I would want to ride, though it is the same size as my 1949 Raleigh Clubman. I generally don't ride frames smaller than that on 26 inch wheels. 

This Continental was a rescued bike. It originally was owned by a collector on Long Island, New York. He bought it locally and cleaned it up. At some point, an online bike/parts dealer bought the bike, raided the more valuable parts off of it, and sold the now-incomplete bike project to me. I refurbished it this past winter, found good parts for it, and put it back on the road. Another Schwinn lightweight gets back on its feet...
 

Refurbishing Schwinn Approved Weinmann Brakes

 I had a couple of free hours on a recent, rainy Sunday afternoon, so I spent some time cleaning up a set of neglected Weinmann 810 "Schwinn Approved" brakes I had recently gotten from a junk merchant. These came of a scrapped Schwinn Traveler from the late 1950s.

Above, you can see one finished caliper and one that still needs cleaning and rebuilding. The shiny caliper on the left is ready to go, and the dull one on the right needs to still be done. I use my Dremel tool and drill press to clean these up. First, I strip them apart and wash everything with Dawn Power Wash (I recommend Power Wash if you haven't tried it yet). Then I use a brass wire brush attachment to knock off the rust, and then a polishing wheel to shine the caliper arms.

 

Above are the two finished calipers - shiny and ready for a project bike.

The Weinmann 810 brakes are underappreciated by riders and collectors for many years. They're reasonably lightweight, not overly difficult to adjust, and provide acceptable stopping power in dry conditions, for a vintage caliper of the 1950s-60s. 

I appreciate that the bolt on these calipers has two sets of threads, allowing adjustment of the caliper arm tightness separately from the overall caliper mounting tightness on the frame/fork. 

Traditional British and American side-pull calipers have a single thread on the bolt, meaning that when you tighten the caliper to the frame or fork, you also are increasing the tension on the caliper arm movement. If you try to really tighten the caliper down on the frame or fork, you'll often find that it causes the arms to bind.You need to find a compromise between arm tension and caliper mount snugness.

 With these Weinmanns, you can attach the caliper snugly using the back threads, and fine tune just the arm tension using the front threads. It helps dial-in the calipers more easily and with more confidence. I also appreciate the use of aluminum to help keep weight down and reduce the issues with rust. These caliper arms shine up nicely with a little polish and a buffing wheel.

Finally, spare parts for these are still plentiful and not overly expensive. I bought these calipers for around $12, and they come complete. I've bought several sets for around $10-15 per set, depending on how clean they are. Spare parts can still be found on eBay and similar sources.

Nice Find: Schwinn Dural Front Hub

 Here's a good find from the past couple of weeks - an unused Schwinn dural front hub in its box. I bought this hub online. The auction for it seems to have eluded notice by the kinds of collectors who spend real money on these things. The hub is missing its oiler band cap, but I should have a spare one I can use. This hub looks to be from the late 1940s or early 1950s.

The box is in nice shape.

These hubs are pretty simple - plain axle, caged bearings, and threaded cones. The drive side cone is threaded down tight to prevent it from self-tightening while the hub spins (similar to English front hubs of the time).  However, the lighter alloy body and oiler port add a little "extra" to this hub. This would be a good hub on one of the nicer Schwinn 3-speed bikes with a fillet brazed frame.

1949 Raleigh Clubman and Milk/Water Jug Mudflap

Having a chance to ride on a warm, humid evening (for May at least), I took out this 1949 Raleigh Clubman that is set up as a light roadster. 

This bike now has a front mudflap made from milk/water jug plastic. It is not difficult to make a mudflap from a milk or water jug. A template is traced on the large side of the jug, then the mudflap is cut out of the jug. Then you mark on the mud flap where the mounting hole should be and punch them out. After that, all you have to do is mount the mud flap using the fender mounting screws. 

The nice thing about these mudflaps is they're made from easily-obtained material, lightweight, and work reasonably well. If the mudflap gets damaged or breaks, it's easy and cheap to replace. Here in the USA, the jugs generally are either opaque white or a translucent. Either will look good if you do a neat job of cutting out the mudflap. 

Given how easy the material is to cut, the mudflap can be made in any shape that will fit on the side of the jug. I prefer a relatively small, tapered shape that is smaller than the stock mudflap that the old Bluemels fenders used. This shape gives a tidy, streamlined look that does not interfere with the motion of the pedals or the tire.

1959 Schwinn Traveler - Evening Ride

 A quick photo of tonight's ride over to Bantam Lake before sunset. The trees are just starting to get their leaves finally. Nice evening for a ride.