# Schwinn Tornado Deluxe and Unknown Schwinn Help



## shane_van_axle_rod (Oct 8, 2012)

A friend of mine sold me a 24 inch Schwinn Tornado Deluxe that he picked up at a garage sale.  It has pretty cool looking horn tank on it.  I don’t know a ton about these older bikes but I noticed that the horn is still in the tank, but the button is missing.  I would love to get this to work again.  Is this something that is fixable or do I need to replace the entire horn?  Or am I opening a can of worms that isn’t worth messing with?






My second question is, the same friend that sold me the Tornado, also bought this older Schwinn frame at the same sale.  The rear cog has the “skip tooth?” design. Also it has a head badge that reads “Schwinn Majestic, Arnold Schwinn & Co, Chicago USA”. It has a serial number of   “G11003”.  So my question to everyone, what model is this frame/bike and year is it?  

I greatly appreciate any info on either of these bikes. Thanks!


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## jpromo (Oct 8, 2012)

That 24" Tornado is sweet! I know the tanks for those frames can be very hard to find. A serial should help date that one but I'd say around '57-60. The button shouldn't be a difficult find; no can of worms. They can usually be made to work with a good cleaning of the contact points so long as the unit isn't rusted. Bike looks all correct other than the seat, grips, and maybe the stem. Missing headlight on front fender. I think the correct one would be a Rocket Ray Junior, possibly. Looks like it should clean up nice with a little bit of love. Great pick though! That's one 24er I would have definitely nabbed.

The Majestic dates at 1952 and could have been a few models. It's generally referred to as the "straight-bar" frame as the middle bar is perfectly straight versus the DX frame which had a good curve to it, and the cantilever frame with two bars that arch over the whole frame. I'd guess a Hornet is a likely model for '52. It could have been a Panther as well but, missing so many parts and the rear fender being a universal, it's impossible to say for sure. A great start into the hobby, and welcome! Enjoy.


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## mruiz (Oct 8, 2012)

Nice Majestic frame, and good find.
 Mitch


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## greenephantom (Oct 8, 2012)

Nice finds.  You should tell your friend to bring you more of the same every weekend.

The buttons on the horn units can be a pain to deal with, and you might just end up putting an entire replacement horn unit in it.  The Tornado is a 24" wheel bike, generally too small for an adult to ride.  The tank is by far and away the most valuable piece on the bike as it's essentially the same unit as used on 1950s era 24" Schwinn Heavyweights.  The tank is likely worth more than the rest of the bike combined.

The Schwinn Majestic could be an interesting project, but it's going to need lots (way lots) of work and parts to make it nice again.  Even to make it a rider would be pretty costly.  Your best be would be to find a half-way decent women's 26" Schwinn Heavyweight (nots a Middleweight) from the same approximate era (1946 - 1955ish) and transfer all the parts over.  Buying all the parts individually would be quite costly. From the pics it looks like one of the crank arms is broken as well as the fork (?).   Neat frame and neat badge. Others have started with less.

I have a Schwinn FAQ and a quickie tech page on my site below that you may or may not find helpful.

Cheers, Geoff


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## shane_van_axle_rod (Oct 9, 2012)

jpromo said:


> The button shouldn't be a difficult find; no can of worms...




The horn looked surprisingly clean, the wire going the horn is still there, but the button appears to be ripped out. I think I am going to take it out and see if I can wire it up to see if it will make any noise.  Is there any standard replacement for the button?  I'm going to put that rocket ray on my Christmas list!  Thanks for the info!




greenephantom said:


> The tank is likely worth more than the rest of the bike combined...




Um, how much are we talking, for the tank or the bike, maybe I shouldn't even own this thing.  I'm in it for $100 right now, I bought it because I thought it looked kinda cool.  Maybe I should turn it for a buck.



greenephantom said:


> From the pics it looks like one of the crank arms is broken...




Its actually worse than that, someone cut the crank arms in half and welded them back together so they would turn together instead of opposite of each other like any other normal bike.

Thankyou all for your knowledge and comments.


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## mruiz (Oct 9, 2012)

Are you going to use the black frame? I mite be interested if it is not ruin.
 Mitch


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## shane_van_axle_rod (Oct 9, 2012)

mruiz said:


> Are you going to use the black frame? I mite be interested if it is not ruin.
> Mitch




Its not mine to sell, my friend that sold me the Tornado owns it.  I think that everything was clean enough that it could be completely dissembled with some care. I think he had some loose plans to build it up, but I can relay an offer to him if you would like.


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## mruiz (Oct 9, 2012)

PM sent.
 Mitch


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