# ???? Town and Country Tandem



## Syncronaught (Aug 26, 2013)

Hello all I am new to this forum. I have a Schwinn Town and Country tandem with serial number T005822 stamped on the rear bottom bracket (crank tube). I would like to know what year this bike is, this bike with several others posted here on these forums does not exactly fit the data bases that I have found posted. T prefix with six digits following.

The story on this bike is back in about 1981 I saw an add in the Santa Barbara, CA Independent (a local liberal paper) for a tandem for sale. My wife and I were at that time pretty avid cyclists we had recently returned from a 1200 mile fully self supported camping tour of the Bikecentennial trail from SF to Oregon and return to SB. I thought it would be fun to have an around town tandem. It turned out that the add was placed by an acquaintance who had just purchased the bike rental business on the Beach in SB. The bike turned out to be partially disassembled and was in a storage shed with a bunch of other old bikes and parts. The deal we made was that I bought the bike for $25.00 and had free run of the shed for the parts to complete it. because of this "deal" I am not really sure what is original.

Over the next few years I restored the bike not really caring about originality but mostly what seemed cool. I had a friend who was the best bike painter in the area paint the frame and fork "Schwinn Blue" metallic. Another friend replated all the chrome parts. I finished assembling the bike after we moved to Channel Islands Harbor in Ventura county CA in about 1985. My wife and I set off on our first and only ride on the bike on July 4th. We thought we were pretty stylish cruising the area on our twin on the holiday, the ride turned into about 30 miles and by the end of the day we were near dead. We parked the bike drove to the harbor and watched the fireworks from a friends sailboat. Just the other day I pulled it from the corner of our hanger did a general cleaning and aired the tires, the wife and I (now in much worse shape) hopped on and rode about a mile to the end of the runway and back, the bike rode beautifully. below is a general list of how it sits right now.

Blue Schwinn metallic paint (same color as my '65 Stingray) perfect show condition
Show quality chrome
"Finn" front chrome fender
Chrome rear fender
Unknown front wheel with small flange hub and no brakes
Kick Back two speed Yellow band rear hub and unknown wheel, coaster brake
Chrome left and right chain guards (the indents have not been painted to match)
Front and rear bars are original
All clamps stems etc are original with "AS" logo

Things I know to be not correct
Rear hub
Front stem bolts do not have AS on them
Pedals are straight with reflectors
No rear fender reflector
Grips are newer Schwinn padded type
Front badge is not on bike and is blank
No logos or striping 
Brooks leather spring seats

My thinking is that if I can find out what is exactly correct per the year I can try to source and replace the odd parts.

Thank you anyone who reads this story and helps out.


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## REC (Aug 27, 2013)

*T&C Tandem*

Interesting story. Can you post any photos of this bike?

July 24 of '50 is the last time the T&C numbers show in the posted list, and those ended with T003035. Your bike is quite a ways higher sequentially, so it would be interesting to pop a crank out and see what the indicated date on it would be. 

I don't personally own one of these, but my bicycle partner does. I'm gonna bug him to get the number off his tonight. A co-worker also has one he is looking to sell, and has promised me photos of it for over a year now (me thinks he's in a large rush on this). It would be interesting to see where these all place in numbers.

Thanks for posting!

REC
PS:
I have three tandems, but none of them are T&C Models.


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## Denver Razorback (Oct 29, 2013)

Syncronaught said:


> Hello all I am new to this forum. I have a Schwinn Town and Country tandem with serial number T005822 stamped on the rear bottom bracket (crank tube). I would like to know what year this bike is, this bike with several others posted here on these forums does not exactly fit the data bases that I have found posted. T prefix with six digits following.
> 
> The story on this bike is back in about 1981 I saw an add in the Santa Barbara, CA Independent (a local liberal paper) for a tandem for sale. My wife and I were at that time pretty avid cyclists we had recently returned from a 1200 mile fully self supported camping tour of the Bikecentennial trail from SF to Oregon and return to SB. I thought it would be fun to have an around town tandem. It turned out that the add was placed by an acquaintance who had just purchased the bike rental business on the Beach in SB. The bike turned out to be partially disassembled and was in a storage shed with a bunch of other old bikes and parts. The deal we made was that I bought the bike for $25.00 and had free run of the shed for the parts to complete it. because of this "deal" I am not really sure what is original.
> 
> ...




Here's a picture of my 1959 Schwinn Town and Country Tandem.  This bike was on display for about 25 years in a local Schwinn shop.  It has new seats (still have the originals), cables and different pedals.  I don't have the serial number in front of me but can get it tomorrow evening.


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## shanicegomes (Oct 31, 2013)

White and red combination looks really great


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## Dan the bike man (Oct 31, 2013)

That bike is NICE!!!! I would not change a thing! It's a work of art!


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## GTs58 (Oct 31, 2013)

Sounds like that one may be one of the very last ones built. Here is one that was dated as a 1962 model, Serial number T004688. 1963 was the last year for the Town & Country.


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