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Let’s see some late 70’s/early 80’s Cruisers and Spitfires

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Thee I have been looking for that cat eye bracket for over a year! Had finally purchased one on ebay but the guy messages me 10 days later and said he didn't have one 😭😭😭
I have that exact piece as a backup, it' what came with this bike. it's a cateye B3 reflector bracket you need just in case.
 
I have that exact piece as a backup, it' what came with this bike. it's a cateye B3 reflector bracket you need just in case.
Thanks Gus! I just went with a knock off version that @Gordon was kind enough to give me. It gets the job done 👍
 
Just purchased this 1980 Schwinn Deluxe Cruiser, Serial # ARxxxxxx, with Badge # 0360, February 4, 1980. Sable Black
Appears to have been hardly ridden, has about 5 minimal paint chips, Original W/W Studded Balloon Tires. Bicycle was purchased at Denny's Schwinn Store, Lansing. MI
The odd thing is that it's a 1st year "Deluxe" with no springer fork but has a 5 speed fork with brake mount.
Was told that they wanted fenders so, they swapped the fork to mount fenders and sold it at a discounted price. Why?
After a good clean-up this one should look like new again.

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Just purchased this 1980 Schwinn Deluxe Cruiser, Serial # ARxxxxxx, with Badge # 0360, February 4, 1980. Sable Black
Appears to have been hardly ridden, has about 5 minimal paint chips, Original W/W Studded Balloon Tires. Bicycle was purchased at Denny's Schwinn Store, Lansing. MI
The odd thing is that it's a 1st year "Deluxe" with no springer fork but has a 5 speed fork with brake mount.
Was told that they wanted fenders so, they swapped the fork to mount fenders and sold it at a discounted price. Why?
After a good clean-up this one should look like new again.

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Someone must have been messing with that one. I've seen dealer added fenders on these and a dealer for sure would not use those fender braces and have the know how to correctly mount a fender to a springer.
 
Someone must have been messing with that one. I've seen dealer added fenders on these and a dealer for sure would not use those fender braces and have the know how to correctly mount a fender to a springer.
Yea, I know but this thing is very original. Denny's was a 500 Award Schwinn Shop and I wonder if it was put together from parts they had to make a complete one.
This one has a rear fender bridge with a coaster brake, was 1980 the first year for the fender bridge mount?
 
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Yea, I know but this thing is very original. Denny's was a 500 Award Schwinn Shop and I wonder if it was put together from parts they had to make a complete one.
This one has a rear fender bridge with a coaster brake, was 1980 the first year for the fender bridge mount?
It's been pointed out that if a Schwinn frame was not built up in the factory, it would not have a date stamped on the head badge. That makes sense, so that frame was built up before the dealer received it. I don't care for the springers and I can see someone not wanting one when buying a new bike, so why not buy just the Cruiser? There is a member here that has a coaster brake Klunker that swears this bike was factory produced. The chain guard was redone, the 5 speed chain ring was still attached and so was the yellow braking warning sticker. But he still believes the original seller's story that it was purchased new in that configuration and it's how it was built when it left the factory. Why would someone make a coaster out of a Klunker 5?
I think it was the 1981 model Cruisers where all had the rear brake bridge.
 
Yea, I know but this thing is very original. Denny's was a 500 Award Schwinn Shop and I wonder if it was put together from parts they had to make a complete one.
This one has a rear fender bridge with a coaster brake, was 1980 the first year for the fender bridge mount?
That fender bridge was used with the 3 speed bikes that usually came with a rear caliper brake. It was introduced on the balloon Jaguar in late 1953 and was commonly fitted to 3 speed middleweights. But it was dropped after 1970, which was the last year for a 3 speed option on the Typhoon. When the Klunker 5 (1978) and Spitfire 5 were produced (1979) they still used the "single speed" U channel bracket.
I believe you're correct and the "3 speed" bracket was brought back for the Cruiser 5 in 1980, even though they continued to use the Atom drum brake for a while. Post #68 in this thread shows an early Cruiser 5 that had the single speed rear bracket, but most of the Cruiser 5's had the three speed bracket.


I can't see why a dealer would do extra work to sell a bike at a discounted price. As GTs58 says, they could have just sold a standard Cruiser, and they would have charged extra for the fenders.
 
I can't see why a dealer would do extra work to sell a bike at a discounted price. As GTs58 says, they could have just sold a standard Cruiser, and they would have charged extra for the fenders.
I'm thinking the OG Owner wanted a standard Cruiser with fenders so, they took a Deluxe and made one, knowing they could sell the springer fork.
Anyhow, I have the bicycle torn apart for clean-up and detail, going to put a Schwinn springer fork on it to make it a correct Deluxe Cruiser. I'll post photos when reassembled.
 
Yea, I know but this thing is very original. Denny's was a 500 Award Schwinn Shop and I wonder if it was put together from parts they had to make a complete one.
This one has a rear fender bridge with a coaster brake, was 1980 the first year for the fender bridge mount?

1980 is when Schwinn changed the frame for the Cruiser models. BUT, some of the early 80 model bikes still had the old style frame, and you can see that in the 1980 catalog pic for the Deluxe Cruiser

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I'm thinking the OG Owner wanted a standard Cruiser with fenders so, they took a Deluxe and made one, knowing they could sell the springer fork.
Anyhow, I have the bicycle torn apart for clean-up and detail, going to put a Schwinn springer fork on it to make it a correct Deluxe Cruiser. I'll post photos when reassembled.

There was no need to take the spring fork off to install the fenders. Schwinn sold an adaptor for the spring fork that attached to the pivot bolt to allow the mounting of a front fender!

BTW, back in the day, the spring fork was NOT a popular fork! Most people wanted the chrome tube forks like the Tange & Landing Gear, that is why Schwinn eventually discontinued the Deluxe Cruiser, then came out with a tube fork as OE on the Cruiser model for the 83 model year.

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