Has anyone seen one of these levers ?

[phantom]

I can't recall ever seeing this lever on a bike I have had. Lever up and wheel is able to drop between the pads to remove. Lever down and normal braking. This is on a 71 Racer.

 

[Andrew Gorman]

Quick release for sidepull brakes- they were pretty common on better brakesets. who made the brakes?

 

[GTs58]

Pretty common on Schwinn? The brakes are either Weinmann or dia comp, And Schwinn never used those and they are not that common, I’ve never seen them before.

 

[phantom]

Schwinn Approved Type LS2.8 I have never seen the lever before and I have seen a ton of Schwinn LW and MW front calipers over the years. It's a first for me.

Thanks for getting me to Bluebird status though.

 

[Oldbikeguy1960]

Dia Compe was big on them, my brother uses a type of release like that on his Laser 3000 BMX.
I may have aeen them on Weinmann brakes as well, I will look at my old brake collection.

 

[dweenk]

I agree that the brakes are either Weinmann or Dia-Compe.

 

[phantom]

I agree that the brakes are either Weinmann or Dia-Compe.

I don't know who they are made by. The Caliper just says Schwinn approved on it. I have seen hundreds of the same caliper on LW Schwinn 3 speeds, just none with the dropout release function. My guess is someone who took the front wheel off on a regular basis to get the bike in a car added this to make it easier.

 

[juvela]

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if you would wish to know which vendor contract produced the caliper you should be able to read markings on the backside of the caliper arms

here is the backside of a W model 730 from 1978 as an example -

in this case the date is marked in a clockface type symbol which also gives the month of fabrication

here is a closeup view of the front of the same caliper

the QR mechanism on the subject caliper is a DC one
the W QR mechanism at the time of the bicycle lacks the black covering on the lever

suspect caliper will be W produced and QR added subsequently

here is a W parts drawing for the sidepull caliper from a manufacturer catalogue of 1971
one can see what the W caliper mounted QR mechanism (#66) looked like at that epoch

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[phantom]

I'm not all that interested in maker marks etc. I had just never seen one on a Schwinn LW or MW or ever posted here before and I still believe it's rare, but thanks for your technical info.

 

[phantom]

No one was able to show me another one except in a diagram so I still have to believe they are rare or they are all over the place and people just don't have time to send a picture. Either way, I am now curious about this set up on a rear caliper. I have never seen these before, and that is no indication they are rare either, just that I have never seen them.