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Pre Krate 24" Springer Fork???

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We sold a lot of Tri Bikes at our dealership in the 1960's and 70's, since we were located close to a very large retirement community, Sun City, AZ. In the early days of tri bikes, they were all sold and assembled as conversion kits. Men's, and Ladies frames, 20", 24", and 26", Middleweight, and Lightweight width wheels, we tried it all. This has nothing to do with Schwinn tri bike models which did not even exist at this point. By far, the best compromise was a lady's frame for safe mounting. The 24"-wheel size placed the bike lower to the ground for better stability making it at least harder to turn over. And the lightweight wheels were the best choice for the higher air pressure helping offset the harder rolling resistance of having three tires on the ground. We sold Gobby tri bikes and conversion kits, and Ret Bar tri bikes and conversion kits. Ret Bar eventually landed the Schwinn tri bike contract and built the back half of the Town and Country model. Gobby landed the Sears tri bike contract. The two companies were located only ten miles apart and both sold thousands of tri bikes nationally. The double wall S-5 or S-6 rims proved to be very strong from the wheel "side loads" experienced on a tri bike. Any time the Grand Kids got to ride a tri bike on "two wheels", Grand Ma had a repair bill to pay. The "single purpose built" single bar tri bikes had even better stability than a Schwinn "conversion kit" Town and Country model.
John

John
How are the sales of tri bikes going at the moment? Is the popularity no longer the same? Perhaps pensioners now prefer an e-bike to pedal less.
 
Officially, during the 50's Schwinn only made a 24" fork for the boy's 24" Phantom. However, they made a very special and rare girl's 24" springer fork for the Whizzer S-10 model frame. This very rare frame is a cantilever boy's frame with the longer girl's head tube for additional strength. I believe I have the only known example of a factory made girl's 24" bike with an S-10 springer fork. It was originally found in Chicago and has a 1954 serial number.

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Officially, during the 50's Schwinn only made a 24" fork for the boy's 24" Phantom. However, they made a very special and rare girl's 24" springer fork for the Whizzer S-10 model frame. This very rare frame is a cantilever boy's frame with the longer girl's head tube for additional strength. I believe I have the only known example of a factory made girl's 24" bike with an S-10 springer fork. It was originally found in Chicago and has a 1954 serial number.

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There were many connections between the Schwinn and Whizzer companies besides the stuff printed in catalogs.

Ray Burch was the Vice President of Marketing at Schwinn. He was hired by Schwinn from Whizzer. Like most marketing and advertising guys he hit some home runs and had some duds. I would credit him with the concept of dealer franchising and later the authorized dealer network. He was the push behind the Schwinn Total Concept store design program. Many former Schwinn dealers are retired today as wealthy men not because of the bicycles they sold but because of the Real Estate and Buildings they were able to pay off by selling Schwinn bicycles. Bicycle sales was their means to an end. I last spoke with Ray Burch (and George Garner) when they visited our store around 1997. He was a unique guy and everyone was a friend.

John
 
We sold a lot of Tri Bikes at our dealership in the 1960's and 70's, since we were located close to a very large retirement community, Sun City, AZ. In the early days of tri bikes, they were all sold and assembled as conversion kits. Men's, and Ladies frames, 20", 24", and 26", Middleweight, and Lightweight width wheels, we tried it all. This has nothing to do with Schwinn tri bike models which did not even exist at this point. By far, the best compromise was a lady's frame for safe mounting. The 24"-wheel size placed the bike lower to the ground for better stability making it at least harder to turn over. And the lightweight wheels were the best choice for the higher air pressure helping offset the harder rolling resistance of having three tires on the ground. We sold Gobby tri bikes and conversion kits, and Ret Bar tri bikes and conversion kits. Ret Bar eventually landed the Schwinn tri bike contract and built the back half of the Town and Country model. Gobby landed the Sears tri bike contract. The two companies were located only ten miles apart and both sold thousands of tri bikes nationally. The double wall S-5 or S-6 rims proved to be very strong from the wheel "side loads" experienced on a tri bike. Any time the Grand Kids got to ride a tri bike on "two wheels", Grand Ma had a repair bill to pay. The "single purpose built" single bar tri bikes had even better stability than a Schwinn "conversion kit" Town and Country model.
John

John

Since you dealt with alot of these Tri Wheelers, how do you tru a Town & Country wheel that just has a 5/8ths keyed axle that goes thru hub? How would this wheel be trued since it doesnt have a traditional axle.
 
Since you dealt with alot of these Tri Wheelers, how do you tru a Town & Country wheel that just has a 5/8ths keyed axle that goes thru hub? How would this wheel be trued since it doesnt have a traditional axle.
Don't let it bother you, think outside the box.

Years ago we delt with Ret Bar locally (El Mirage, AZ) and had a spare "keyed axle" that we mounted the wheel hub on. Used a few washers as spacers to center it and mounted it in your Park truing stand for bench truing.

On the bike, just use a couple of automotive jack stands under the axle housing to hold the rear of the bike up. We had a very old Surrey Aluminum truing stand. We just sat the truing stand on the ground and trued the wheel for radial and axial runout by spinning the wheel. We used a centering gauge to confirm the hub was centered within the rim.

If you use the spoke pull up method, I recommend when building wheels, the truing step is very minimal.

Truth be known, none of them were very true, and because they did not have rim brakes on the differential drive models having perfectly true rims was never an issue.

In the motorcycle shop we had the same issue balancing new tires on motorcycle wheels with a large diameter axle and sealed bearings. We had a piece of drill rod with two cone pieces held by Allen screws. If you have any motorcycle buddies just borrow their wheel balancer and it would work perfect for truing, the rear wheels on your Ret Bar (Schwinn) tri bike.

John
 
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I have been wanting to swapp the skinny tire s5 rims for S7 rims all the way around. Since u dealt with Ret Bar, are you familiar with the RBC Tandem Trike?
 
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I have been wanting to swapp the skinny tire s5 rims for S7 rims all the way around. Since u dealt with Ret Bar, are you familiar with the RBC Tandem Trike?
No I'm not aware of that product.

I do not think a tandem trike is a good idea. Basically, it's a geometry issue. The single trikes were built the rear width to get them through a house door jamb. When you combine that "relatively narrow" width the long length of a tandem, it is not able to hold up two riders. The normal single rider tribike's were marginal on turn over stability especially when you ride over a curb at an angle. This is the reason the CPSC recalled all of the motorsport's ATC's (three wheeled cycles) (poor stability) and the manufacturers developed what we know today as ATV's four wheeled all terrain vehicles.

My daughter has run marathons for years, including the Boston Marathon. She has developed a neurological balance issue and now has to ride a three wheeled bicycle. She rides with the Challenged Athletes group and rides her trike each year from San Francisco to San Diego. She has been through all of the three wheeled options. She tried a carbon fiber trike (one wheel in front, two in back) and she was not stable enough to ride the bike safely at speed. She now rides a three wheel recumbent with two wheels in front, and one in the rear. She is trying to get her current three wheel recumbent accepted as a legal bike handicap option for the Paris Para Olympics. Sorry for all of the side story, but we are proud of her for not giving up her racing in spite of her new challenge.

John
 
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