Klunker V huh??

[schwinnbikebobb]

I'm sure it's just a typo since it was announced correctly a few months earlier in the Reporter but still interesting

 

[Xlobsterman]

I'm sure it's just a typo since it was announced correctly a few months earlier in the Reporter but still interesting

View attachment 1706143

V is the roman numeral for 5

 

[sarmisluters]

The real news is seeing “and the Spitfire is restyled as a “Klunker .”
It would have been cool to see a “Klunker” chain guard on the single speed Spitfire model.
Anyone could replicate their own tribute version of this today.

 

[GTs58]

The real news is seeing “and the Spitfire is restyled as a “Klunker .”
It would have been cool to see a “Klunker” chain guard on the single speed Spitfire model.
Anyone could replicate their own tribute version of this today.

There is already a thread on one, do a search for it.

 

[mrg]

So the K5 was announced in the July/Aug 78 reporter and in the News Flash October for upcoming 79 line so is anything in print on the discontinuation/switch to Spitfire 5 and when?, did it make it into any 79 catalogs sense they were printed then out months before?, weird how the Spitfire name was a backup for 77 & 78 after getting sued for Calif Cruiser and then they had to use it again 79 after getting sued for Klunker so if not for that there would have been 79 Klunker coaster brake also! they switched to Cruiser in 80 so sounds like they never wanted Spitfire at all, I guess sense it was name after a 40's fighter plane, not to relevant in the 70's like Calif Cruiser, Klunker, Cruiser!, maybe gives a little more credit to that thread with a Klunker single speed seeing that they were going to drop Spitfire completely for 79!

 

[GTs58]

So the K5 was announced in the July/Aug 78 reporter and in the News Flash October for upcoming 79 line so is anything in print on the discontinuation/switch to Spitfire 5 and when?, did it make it into any 79 catalogs sense they were printed then out months before?

I think the Klunker 5 ran till the end of the 78 production year (October mid-November). Was it not the California Cruiser that had an immediate removal of the chain guards?

 

[mrg]

I think the Klunker was way more into production & distribution than the Calif Cruiser, I still have not seen any Schwinn literature or reference to the CC?

 

[GTs58]

There was a name infringement with the Cali Cruiser probably right off bat. Schwinn might have tried to see if the name would fly so maybe no news leads prior. Evidently the name was too similar to another, and it did not fly. If I'm not mistaken, the Cali crowd called their bikes Clunkers and Schwinn just changed the spelling to Klunker, then Schwinn probably got an ear full from the organized Cali crowd so they decided to axe that name.

 

[mrg]

Larry Mcneely ( probably spelled wrong ) who owned Recycle Cycle in HB was already building California Cruisers so Schwinn had to stop immediately and had to pay him a lump sum and so much per bike ( I was living in HB at the time hanging at his shop and Pedal Pusher building what we just called beach cruisers ) but it took a while in court to figure out that Klunker was to close to Clunker so Schwinn didn't act as fast to replace. I heard but don't remember what that settlement was, I'll have to ask next time I'm at the Mt bike museum.

 

[GTs58]

Was there another manufacturer producing a bike named clunker? Or was it just a group of people that called their bikes clunkers?