Help me with detective work. The Pedal Pusher Newport Beach, CA

[Schwinn Sales West]

Leon, You have so much to share with this hobby, but you go off on tangents.

The History of Schwinn Bicycle Company should be available for all interested to see, to read, and to make up their own opinions. My opinion, and yours does not change anything to the history. The actual history is documented, for better or worse, some good, some bad, but it's still just the actual history.

It would be a huge benefit to the hobby for bicycle enthusiasts to have an easily accessible library of all of the actual Schwinn documents for their reference. None of our opinions, no B/S, just the original factory documents as originally published by Schwinn. I'm not talking about Schwinn Consumer Catalogs which have very limited information. I'm talking about the actual Dealer Catalogs that were sent out (Schwinn skipped a few years) to every Schwinn Dealer at the beginning of the model year with bicycle specifications so they could place their orders. In time, Schwinn developed a National Parts Catalog, and the Jobbers/Schwinn Sales Companies added their regional parts catalogs to the national catalog. All of this information should be available to anyone that wants to know the true Schwinn Storey of whatever Schwinn sold to their dealerships. It is my belief that this accurate factory information would be a great resource to anyone restoring a Vintage/Classic Schwinn Bicycle.

Everyone is welcome to help fill in the blanks to make this a viable, useful resource for all to use. At this point we are looking for an original 1956 Schwinn Dealer Catalog to scan.

John Palmer

 

[GTs58]

Leon, You have so much to share with this hobby, but you go off on tangents.

The History of Schwinn Bicycle Company should be available for all interested to see, to read, and to make up their own opinions. My opinion, and yours does not change anything to the history. The actual history is documented, for better or worse, some good, some bad, but it's still just the actual history.

It would be a huge benefit to the hobby for bicycle enthusiasts to have an easily accessible library of all of the actual Schwinn documents for their reference. None of our opinions, no B/S, just the original factory documents as originally published by Schwinn. I'm not talking about Schwinn Consumer Catalogs which have very limited information. I'm talking about the actual Dealer Catalogs that were sent out (Schwinn skipped a few years) to every Schwinn Dealer at the beginning of the model year with bicycle specifications so they could place their orders. In time, Schwinn developed a National Parts Catalog, and the Jobbers/Schwinn Sales Companies added their regional parts catalogs to the national catalog. All of this information should be available to anyone that wants to know the true Schwinn Storey of whatever Schwinn sold to their dealerships. It is my belief that this accurate factory information would be a great resource to anyone restoring a Vintage/Classic Schwinn Bicycle.

Everyone is welcome to help fill in the blanks to make this a viable, useful resource for all to use. At this point we are looking for an original 1956 Schwinn Dealer Catalog to scan.

John Palmer

How about the 1958 catalog also? If there ever was one.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

How about the 1958 catalog also? If there ever was one.

We are looking for a 1956 catalog at this point. We appreciate all help with this large project. John

 

[mike cates]

Leon,
You WERE THERE and I remember your efforts to "try" to get bicycle meets going.
I was and still am more of the 1880-1892 hard tire safety and high wheel type of bicycle collector but saw your interest and passion for the classic bicycles.
I remember talking with you at one of the CYCLART bike shows that Jim and Susan Cunningham put on down here in San Marcos many moons ago. Also at one of Dr. Dave's meets held at his office parking lot in OC.
Unless I missed it, I haven't seen anything mentioning Howie Cohen of West Coast Cycle and later the online website Everything Bicycles. West Coast Cycle was a huge bicycle distributor that brought high end Japanese bicycles to the West Coast and there were a lot of antique and classic bicycles in his showroom. I met Howie there and got the nickle tour from this gracious man.
Thanks Leon for elaborating on historical events as without you writing about it, it would get lost in time with a new generation only speculating and not really knowing how things went down which is important to the scope of bicycle collectors, restorers and enthusiasts.
Love the photo of you at the table at Pomona. I was just there recently to see the IN N OUT drag races and boy has that place changed and looks different now than the background shown in your photo!
Mike Cates
Carlsbad, CA.

 

[bobcycles]

What does the Strand culture refer to?

..... reading back on this interesting thread...
yep for me...growing up in both Santa Monica early on, then high school in Redondo Beach....
the strand was the place. It was the closest you could get to literally the ocean or sand on the beach...
You could ride it almost uninterrupted from Redondo to Santa Monica..slight detour around the Marina Del Rey harbor.
I bought my first "complete" prewar Schwinn from Wheelie master Eddy, never knew his last name...he acquired
it at a yard sale in Manhattan beach... he was riding a complete with AS button 38' first year spring fork Ace badged
Motorbike one day...super rusty. This would have been 1979 I believe. I stopped him and asked him if he wanted
to sell it, 50.00 bux he said. Walked to the strand the next day in Hermosa Beach not far from home and rode
the 38' back to the house. Prior to that, the strand was where I first noticed and became obsessed with vintage
Balloon tired bicycles... I still ride it regularly day and night.
The old high school shenanigans there were epic. We knew the homes where no one lived or only part time..
and would hop the wall, take over the out door furniture with Belgian Orvals, other Trappists, German Paulaner,
dortmunder you name it exotic brews from Dans Liquor in Manhattan, or King Cellars immense selection in Redondo..
maybe some Thai stick or Humboldt as it was also quite fashionable..
Police cars would cruise the strand... there we were on private property, trespassing essentially, but immune
to the glaring eye of the popo! Epic times.. raised on the strand basically, and surfing the waters adjacent.
My first roommate experience out of the house was 8th and the strand in Hermosa...
I could roll over in my bed and look at the surf and decide if it was going to be a session or not..
Living on the strand today is 1%er material... mega$real estate

 

[Mymando]

I too wish there was a book of Schwinn documents and photos and also all the Schwinn catalogs for reference either (hopefully free) or at least at a price we could all afford and use for future reference and that we could further keep this interest for future generations to come. Thank you Leon for your input and all your information and setting the record straight at on some points that seem to have been glossed over or misrepresented to some extent.

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

I too wish there was a book of Schwinn documents and photos and also all the Schwinn catalogs for reference either (hopefully free) or at least at a price we could all afford and use for future reference and that we could further keep this interest for future generations to come. Thank you Leon for your input and all your information and setting the record straight at on some points that seem to have been glossed over or misrepresented to some extent.

It's all here on the C.A.B.E , we just have to take the time and read through threads/post and put it together this is all a learning process for all of us in the hobby ,if I've learned anything after 30some years in this ,it's no matter what you want to believe there is always something popping up to discuss, many opinions, thought processes, beliefs and understandings, I'm always discovering new things here , and that's just one great aspect about the C.A.B.E....

Rafael ~

 

[mrg]

This thread has veered from the Pedal Pusher topic a bit but many thanks to members like @barneyguey for putting in the time for research, gathering all their info and self publishing books like Many Faces of Schwinn badge books to put that info out there, we need more people with that kind of info to publish.

 

[Dawalt]

the pedal pusher location that I went to back in the day- taken this morning 106 23rd st