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Early Schwinn Continental Clubman?

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I would think so. I don't remember seeing a decal on a Schwinn stating Chrome-moly until much later.

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I'm like you, I thought all the early Continentals had chrome moly frames, but now I'm wondering. The 1952 catalog was the first to actually say "chrome molybdenum" that I could find. All I really know about drawn tubing is from this 1959 video on Youtube:

 
Seamless tubing can be of any alloy used. It is drawn through a machine at high temperature, as opposed to being rolled over a form and contact welded together at high temp. Seamless tubing was just the new way of doing things and they had decals to tout that their bikes were being made this "new" way. Schwinn was not a pioneer in seamless tubing. There is a video I've seen in the VCC library that shows it being done. Ingots in one side and tubing out the other.
Kind of like the progression of tech in cars during the 80's when "fuel injection" "EFI" and those kinds of badges were on the backs of cars. Once it Became the norm, the badges went away.
Considering that the World and other lightweight models were being made with electric welded construction and the Continentals weren't, Id say its an easy step to say that brazing unlugged frames out of mild steel makes little sense. it would make them much heavier than a electro-welded frame. The brazing material is brass/bronze which is heavier stuff to begin with. There would be no advantage to this.

Now, how much of the frame was Chro-Mo is another story. The Super Sports in the 60's thru early 70s are "said" to have only the main tubing Chro-Mo and the stays mild steel. They are 30 pound bikes with much lighter components on them than these old Continentals, so I tend to believe that.
Anybody got a mass-spectrometer? :)
 
Seamless tubing can be of any alloy used. It is drawn through a machine at high temperature, as opposed to being rolled over a form and contact welded together at high temp. Seamless tubing was just the new way of doing things and they had decals to tout that their bikes were being made this "new" way. Schwinn was not a pioneer in seamless tubing. There is a video I've seen in the VCC library that shows it being done. Ingots in one side and tubing out the other.
Kind of like the progression of tech in cars during the 80's when "fuel injection" "EFI" and those kinds of badges were on the backs of cars. Once it Became the norm, the badges went away.
Considering that the World and other lightweight models were being made with electric welded construction and the Continentals weren't, Id say its an easy step to say that brazing unlugged frames out of mild steel makes little sense. it would make them much heavier than a electro-welded frame. The brazing material is brass/bronze which is heavier stuff to begin with. There would be no advantage to this.

Now, how much of the frame was Chro-Mo is another story. The Super Sports in the 60's thru early 70s are "said" to have only the main tubing Chro-Mo and the stays mild steel. They are 30 pound bikes with much lighter components on them than these old Continentals, so I tend to believe that.
Anybody got a mass-spectrometer? :)
I came to the same conclusion, although from a different angle. In the video it shows both processes, and it looks like drawn tubing is a more involved and labor-intensive process. I doubt anybody's going to the trouble just to draw mild steel, you can roll and weld it faster and cheaper. But it doesn't say what alloy they were using for the drawn tubes.
 
Spring is here and got the bike out today. Just a simple green cleaning and installation of Era correct brakes, stainless rimset, and SA shifter.


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Spring is here and got the bike out today. Just a simple green cleaning and installation of Era correct brakes, stainless rimset, and SA shifter.


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Very nice bike. Please do us all a favor. Fix your brake shoes before you ride it, they are mounted backwards on both the front and the rear calipers.

The CABE Safety inspector.
John
 
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