20” HEAVY DUTY Speedster! Ever see one?

[blakekennedy]

I pulled the front wheel, and it very obviously looks like something was done to it at some point. However, all of the knurling is intact on the top side and has no obvious signs of filling. Very confusing indeed. I have no idea when this stuff was done, but it would’ve had to be around the time the bike was built? Seems odd for someone to go out of their way and trouble to build such a thing with period correct hubs unless it was done back in the day.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

I pulled the front wheel, and it very obviously looks like something was done to it at some point. However, all of the knurling in in tact on the top side and has no obvious signs of filling. Very confusing indeed. I have no idea when this stuff was done, but it would’ve had to be around the time the bike was built? Seems odd for someone to go out of their way and trouble to build such a thing with period correct hubs unless it was done back in the day.

View attachment 2331919

Actually, it has every sign of being "welded up", redrilled, and then re-chromed to my viewpoint. With the rim strip lifted you should clearly see the edges of the flat metal strip that was formed into the tubular rim. Why can you see the knurling left by the rim welding process, on the outside yet see none of it on the inside of the rim? The inside looks to me like it was metal worked and a flapper wheel rough finished the inside. It would not be hard, just time consuming to weld up the original 28 spoke holes and then redrill them to the 36-hole pattern. There was a time fifty years ago that chrome plating was not prohibitively expensive, it was never cheap due to the hand labor work, but not crazy expensive like it is today. Anybody skilled enough to metal finish and weld up the rim would have no problems laying out a new properly spaced 36 hole spoke drilling pattern.

The world is filled with strange things. For example, in the early 1970's I was not happy with the braking performance of my new Schwinn Paramount tandem. I cut the outside flange of the Campagnolo Record rear hub. Then I cut a new Atom "disk brake" hub apart to obtain the disk mounting shoulder with the lock rings. I TIG'd the two parts together and enjoyed having three hand operated brakes on the tandem. The Kelsey Hayes (Krate) disk brake was never a good stopping brake even when they were new.

For consideration, John

 

[WillWork4Parts]

Yeah, the grinding shouldn't be all the way around the inside of the rim... usually you see it around the valve hole and loop closing weld only. Getting into the late 70s-early 80s, the rims did get more flap wheel treatment at the butted seam in the middle, kind of sporadically though. The center stamped S-7s that are on this Speedster stopped being produced around the beginning of 1965 though.

These are just a couple of examples of the flap wheel treatment I was talking about.

 

[blakekennedy]

I definitely agree with the rechroming after seeing the inside of the wheel. I’ve been around cars my whole life, so it is obvious.

I just can’t wrap my head around someone sitting there and going through the process and making sure each knurl is straight and looks like factory after filling the 28 holes. That’s just another level, but its pretty obvious now that it happened. Someone out there wanted 36 holes badly.

I figure it would’ve had to be done right around when the bike was new judging by the hubs used, and especially with it retaining an original front tire. But can’t know for certain. I pretty much bought the bike due to the wheels being an oddity, but I’m also not disappointed that they were made up. I didn’t pay a whole lot for the bike as it is, just fun to look at.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

So here's a side story for all the Schwinn 20" 36 hole S-2 rim guys, basically all the Sting Ray and early BMX guys.

I find that lots of you guys were also heavily into Early Aircooled VW scene.

Question, Did you know that the Empi Inch Pincher Dragster used 20" Schwinn 36 hole S-2 rims with Carlisle/Schwinn Knobby tires?

I guess you could say they ran Schwinn Cycle Truck front wheels on a dragster.

Lots of history on 20" Schwinn rims.

John

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

I definitely agree with the rechroming after seeing the inside of the wheel. I’ve been around cars my whole life, so it is obvious.

I just can’t wrap my head around someone sitting there and going through the process and making sure each knurl is straight and looks like factory after filling the 28 holes. That’s just another level, but its pretty obvious now that it happened. Someone out there wanted 36 holes badly.

I figure it would’ve had to be done right around when the bike was new judging by the hubs used, and especially with it retaining an original front tire. But can’t know for certain. I pretty much bought the bike due to the wheels being an oddity, but I’m also not disappointed that they were made up. I didn’t pay a whole lot for the bike as it is, just fun to look at.

You have a very nice "original paint" Schwinn boys bike. IMO, it would be more collectable with the correct wheels. Just purchase a low cost Schwinn Fair Lady, or Lil Chik for some nice take off S-7 wheels, use your original WSW Westwind S-7 tires and your back to original. The Bendix Eclipse front hub, and the Schwinn made Superior 12" forged stem are both in high demand from the Cycle Truck guys. You will come out cash ahead, the parts you need are way cheaper than the parts you can resell.

John

 

[WillWork4Parts]

Actually, it has every sign of being "welded up", redrilled, and then re-chromed to my viewpoint. With the rim strip lifted you should clearly see the edges of the flat metal strip that was formed into the tubular rim. Why can you see the knurling left by the rim welding process, on the outside yet see none of it on the inside of the rim? The inside looks to me like it was metal worked and a flapper wheel rough finished the inside. It would not be hard, just time consuming to weld up the original 28 spoke holes and then redrill them to the 36-hole pattern. There was a time fifty years ago that chrome plating was not prohibitively expensive, it was never cheap due to the hand labor work, but not crazy expensive like it is today. Anybody skilled enough to metal finish and weld up the rim would have no problems laying out a new properly spaced 36 hole spoke drilling pattern.

The world is filled with strange things. For example, in the early 1970's I was not happy with the braking performance of my new Schwinn Paramount tandem. I cut the outside flange of the Campagnolo Record rear hub. Then I cut a new Atom "disk brake" hub apart to obtain the disk mounting shoulder with the lock rings. I TIG'd the two parts together and enjoyed having three hand operated brakes on the tandem. The Kelsey Hayes (Krate) disk brake was never a good stopping brake even when they were new.

For consideration, John

The knurling would have been altered and smoothed over on the filled holes though...I can't imagine a good way to recreate that knurling to a point where the modification would go completely un-noticed from the outside.
...if I could, there would be a whole lot of modified Schwinn Tubular rims in this world! Lol

The spacing could be replicated in a normal garage if you spent enough time calculating, making a template, and more time with trial and error to make sure you didn't drill up the 36th hole and notice that last gap was different than the others....but to what end??? The rims do look aged to the bike...it just seems more simple to theorize that the drilling happened earlier in the life of the rims. Filling and redrilling an S-7 just leaves me with a profound '¿WHY?' either way you think about it.

Dangit, I want to look harder at these rims. Lol

 

[koolbikes]

Thank you for the information! It is greatly appreciated. Unfortunately all I can do is assume, but possibly this rider was a bit on the larger side and needed the heavy duty parts? It looks like the valve stem hole is also not perfect and maybe even off center, so very interesting for sure. I figure most of the bikes that Shriners used were just regular 20” bikes that had a seat and neck swapped out at the dealer. I’ll try to get some spacing measurements tonight.

blakekennedy, very nice find! ... You stated that you received from OG owner's niece, does she have any past photos from rides, parades of him having in use. There has to be some local newspaper articles with photos. Local Shriner's archives. If there are multiples of this bicycle that would answer the special order question.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

The knurling would have been altered and smoothed over on the filled holes though...I can't imagine a good way to recreate that knurling to a point where the modification would go completely un-noticed from the outside.
...if I could, there would be a whole lot of modified Schwinn Tubular rims in this world! Lol

The spacing could be replicated in a normal garage if you spent enough time calculating, making a template, and more time with trial and error to make sure you didn't drill up the 36th hole and notice that last gap was different than the others....but to what end??? The rims do look aged to the bike...it just seems more simple to theorize that the drilling happened earlier in the life of the rims. Filling and redrilling an S-7 just leaves me with a profound '¿WHY?' either way you think about it.

Dangit, I want to look harder at these rims. Lol

Agree, a closer inspection is called for just so us old guys can go to sleep tonight and not be tossing and turning about how the devil did they realign all the knurls "if they did in fact weld up the 28 holes.

Maybe it was as simple as Joe Schwinn Dealer, placed a phone call to Keith Kingbay, Schwinn's Parts department Manager and asked him if he could grab two unfinished 20" S-7 rims before they went into the machine that drilled all the spoke holes and the valve hole at one time. Setting up the tooling to drill 36 holes in an odd diameter rim size is not plausible to me. You could lay out the drill pattern by hand to drill two rims faster than you reset the machine. The machine is great when your making thousands of the same part in one day.

I would like to look at the drilled venting holes on the inside of the tubular sections. This is how the factory blew out the water and acids used during the chroming processes. It's a point you find rust on re-chromed rims because the small chrome shops do not get the liquids all removed from the tubular sections. They might shed more light on if the rims were actually re-chromed.

John

 

[koolbikes]

So here's a side story for all the Schwinn 20" 36 hole S-2 rim guys, basically all the Sting Ray and early BMX guys.

I find that lots of you guys were also heavily into Early Aircooled VW scene.

Question, Did you know that the Empi Inch Pincher Dragster used 20" Schwinn 36 hole S-2 rims with Carlisle/Schwinn Knobby tires?

I guess you could say they ran Schwinn Cycle Truck front wheels on a dragster.

Lots of history on 20" Schwinn rims.

John

John, I had to post pics of the 1961 "Little but Quick" EMPI Dragster.