One of the first Schwinn catalogs from about 1895
If you look up the address of the old Schwinn on that catalog, it is dead center downtown near the Sears tower in Chicago.
This was their first location before moving to the West Side and developing the factory that would run until Schwinn's demise in the mid 1990's.
This bike called the World would later be known as the Paramount and the other models below the Paramount would be called the "New World" and "Superior". All 3 models built in the handbuilt shop starting in the 1930s
This is the cover of the Catalog with with THE WORLD track racing bike
A lot of the stuff using the word " WORLD" had been related to the excitment fromt he World's Fair that had been held in Chicago in 1893.
One of the coolest Schwinn bikes I think and can still be seen on display at the Bicycle Museum
It has 4 legs on the fork for extra strength with all the riders weight, and the gearing and tires are special for all the extra weight and power that 4 pro riders could kick out. The real bike is different then the one in the picture, I am guessing they came out with this bike like in the drawing and after the 4 power house riders rode it, it did some weird stuff and had to go back to the drawing board for some extra strength on the frame and parts.
I bet if another bike was built like this and was track specific it would be so fast and so unsafe it would be banned from every track. Later, in bicycle history Schwinn's BIG RED Paramount track tandem was banded from a lot tracks due to the speed the bicycle reached. Sometimes held speeds of 60+ mph around a track with other racers around on the track, it made the racing so unsafe, but some places tandem racing still is done. ( mostly big Olympic sized tracks)
A classic picture of Ignaz Schwinn and the Giant from about 1893 or so
No comments:
Post a Comment