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

[wes holliday]

Has anyone ever installed an engine on Trike like the blue one ?
Like to see how they did it.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Has anyone ever installed an engine on Trike like the blue one ?
Like to see how they did it.

Hi Wes, Let me add what little knowledge I have on this subject. I enjoy fabrication, and "thumb nail engineering".

The Schwinn Town and Country three wheeler in the photo is a normal middleweight Schwinn girls bicycle with a Triwheeler conversion kit added. The conversion kits were made by Ret Bar Engineering in El Mirage, AZ. Remember this is all 1980's information, I'm sure much has changed in the past forty years. Ret Bar shipped the raw parts to Schwinn Chicago, Schwinn built the bike and shipped it back for sale in Arizona Schwinn Dealerships. Over the years there was two different style kits, a single wheel drive kit, and the bike pictured has the dual wheel (differential) drive. In our Arizona dealership which was close to the Retirement Sun City tribikes were a popular product. We bought the parts directly from Ret Bar and converted our own bikes, for a large freight savings.

Adding any kind of an assist motor gas or electric IMO would be marginal using the original kit drive parts. The differential is not lubricated and will not sustain any higher RPM speeds. The rear axle bearing retainers are simple press-in (cheap) items. They were marginal for slow speed use, they are not designed for any extra torque or speeds.

As a fabricator, you can engineer most anything to work. But it would be a full re-engineering on the drivetrain. Good luck with your project.

John

 

[Xlobsterman]

Hi Wes, Let me add what little knowledge I have on this subject. I enjoy fabrication, and "thumb nail engineering".

The Schwinn Town and Country three wheeler in the photo is a normal middleweight Schwinn girls bicycle with a Triwheeler conversion kit added. The conversion kits were made by Ret Bar Engineering in El Mirage, AZ. Remember this is all 1980's information, I'm sure much has changed in the past forty years. Ret Bar shipped the raw parts to Schwinn Chicago, Schwinn built the bike and shipped it back for sale in Arizona Schwinn Dealerships. Over the years there was two different style kits, a single wheel drive kit, and the bike pictured has the dual wheel (differential) drive. In our Arizona dealership which was close to the Retirement Sun City tribikes were a popular product. We bought the parts directly from Ret Bar and converted our own bikes, for a large freight savings.

Adding any kind of an assist motor gas or electric IMO would be marginal using the original kit drive parts. The differential is not lubricated and will not sustain any higher RPM speeds. The rear axle bearing retainers are simple press-in (cheap) items. They were marginal for slow speed use, they are not designed for any extra torque or speeds.

As a fabricator, you can engineer most anything to work. But it would be a full re-engineering on the drivetrain. Good luck with your project.

John

We are deviating a little from the original topic of the post, but I guess that is my fault for posting the pic of my T&C.

Anyhow, if my memory serves me correctly (?) I seem to remember an aftermarket front mounted motor drive of some sort that drove the front wheel on these trikes? Do you remember anything like that John?

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

We are deviating a little from the original topic of the post, but I guess that is my fault for posting the pic of my T&C.

Anyhow, if my memory serves me correctly (?) I seem to remember an aftermarket front mounted motor drive of some sort that drove the front wheel on these trikes? Do you remember anything like that John?

Sorry @Xlobsterman , I don't.

It seems like the easiest way to accomplish adding a motor assist "with today's technology", would be to spoke in one of the electric motor front hubs. The biggest issue might be they are made for 26" wheels with 36 hole spoke drilling, and the Tri Bikes had 24" wheels with 28 spoke drilling.

Lets get back on topic, LOL.

John

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

adding a motor assist "with today's technology", would be to spoke in one of the electric motor front hubs.

@Xlobsterman I would have to agree.

Lets get back on topic, LOL.

Allow me, this is an '80 ladies Cruiser I forgot I had in pieces. I love my springers and always like to see what my bikes look like with them installed. This one looks fantastic and cannot wait to finish it up and cruise it around. Not everything is original to the bike I do however have the original fork on another bike but will leave the springer until I find another suitable bike for it. The original guard is on another bike as well and I will get it and add a chain this week and be ready to go.

 

[birdzgarage]

 

[cowglide]

my ‘83 cruiser.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

my ‘83 cruiser.
View attachment 2022592

View attachment 2022593

Did you add the kickback hub?

 

[cowglide]

Did you add the kickback hub?

yes!

 

[dihummer]

So I got the bike the other day, and assembled it today. When I did, I found the crank was bent, and I have contacted the seller about that issue. Also, I took a closer look at the serial number, and I believe it reads SB500484, the first letter is hard to read, but after looking at it for awhile, that is all it can be. But it doesn't follow the pattern for the serial numbers with SB as it would have been using the usual dating codes. But if the letters were inverted to BS, then that would indicate a Feb 85 date code that would be correct.


View attachment 1552531

I do not know if you were able to resolve this serial number.

In 1981 Schwinn Sales published an Information Bulletin Number 23. On page one of the bulletin three classifications of bicycles are defined. Number 2 classification Limited production is of interest. On page 2 of the bulletin Limited production are described. The Letour section is of interest.

I believe that this is a serial number from the Greenville, Mississippi factory. "S" is the prefix, "B" is the month of manufacture and "5" is the year of manufacturer.

This Bulletin was published in 1981 well before Greenville started manufacturing, but these serial numbers were used on Le Tour production in Chicago and the serial number format was carried on for some of the production at Greenville up to 1986.