Let's talk Schwinn steel tubular welded rims

[GTs58]

Outstanding rim design.
I’m not sure how these tags were used as a sales display, but I thought they were pretty cool.
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Then there’s this Lobdell-Emery advertisement from May 1949,
American Bicyclist.
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Note the Tubular rim made exactly like the Schwinn S series Tubular Rims.
Hmmm!
So who actually made these rims?
Schwinn or Lobdell?

Here's some of Frank's drawings. The S-6 rims were made a few years before the S-2's but the profile was different. Fig. 2 appears to be the S-2, or darn close to it with the shoulders not as wide. I think Frank was on to something before Lobdell. There was also some notes with these drawing on the issue of getting the rims cleaning fluid flushed out before chroming.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Possibly, Lobdell developed the rim, since they were the established rim manufacturer.
Schwinn liked what they saw, so they bought the exclusive right to manufacture the rims?

There’s no way, one company copied the other with something so unique without generating a lawsuit.

It stands to reason that Lobdell,
“Rims are our Business”
Invented, and developed the manufacturing process for the Tubular Rim, and then sold it to Schwinn, with an exclusive agreement.

But, who knows?
I just thought that 1949 Lobdell advertisement was interesting.
The text is pretty clear, it says,
“Our New Tubular Rim”

Your correct you can read it any way you choose. Advertising needs to be viewed with a grain of salt, just like the internet today. Just because you read something doesn't mean it's true. Kind of like an insurance company saying we are here to help you.

Keep in mind Schwinn kind of danced to their own music during the early days. They designed many original features and incorporated new design and technology into their products. It's what drove the company from the 20's into the 70's as a market leader. They did not buy much during that time., they developed it. Spring forks, locking forks, knock out hubs, floating cup headsets, 28thread cranks, dura roll bearings, while the industry stayed with single tapered cones, etc.

Later on in the 80's they bought entire companies for the new technology as the market was changing fast on many fronts. Bowflex Fitness in Vancouver, Frontline computerized trainers in El Toro, Kestral carbon frame bikes in Watsonville, Cespel in Hungary, The new aluminum frame factory in Greenville MS., were a few.

It's great to discuss these topics today, I wish we still had some of the original people around that could tell us the behind-the-scenes story so we would know for sure. Richard Schwinn, Jay Townley, and I are all about the same age, so we are not good sources as it happened when we were in diapers.

Anything was possible.

John

 

[Miq]

1938 patent Frank was showing two strips rolled together at the edges to form the bead of the rim.

He's keen on keeping the spoke area clean.

1949 patent has the process @Schwinn Sales West is discussing:

and Frank discusses the plating solution issue as driving some of the novelty in this design:

Keep in mind Schwinn kind of danced to their own music during the early days. They designed many original features and incorporated new design and technology into their products. It's what drove the company from the 20's into the 70's as a market leader. They did not buy much during that time., they developed it. Spring forks, locking forks, knock out hubs, floating cup headsets, 28thread cranks, dura roll bearings, while the industry stayed with single tapered cones, etc.

I wish we still had some of the original people around that could tell us the behind-the-scenes story so we would know for sure.

John

For sure John. Thanks for sharing all that you can.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Thanks for adding the pictures Miq

It looks like CABE is a fun place to hangout and share ideas.

I need to get up to speed on how to post photos on this site. I really struggle with the digital technology as I had a flip phone up until just this last year, but I have some really cool old Schwinn stuff that needs to be viewed first so we can discuss it.

John

 

[Miq]

It mostly comes down to being able to reach this site on the device that has all the photos you want to share. Once you get the device with the pics to see this website, you just hit the Insert Image button at the top of the message you are typing in and it allows you to drag and drop them or click to brose to the folder where the pics are stored.

 

[Miq]

Here are a few pics of my NOT tubular Superior rims from my 41 New World. It is clear that there is only one layer of metal in the center section.

The black layer is the spoke tape. I tried holding it back with my thumb.

More like the Lobdell #38

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Here are a few pics of my NOT tubular Superior rims from my 41 New World. It is clear that there is only one layer of metal in the center section.
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The black layer is the spoke tape. I tried holding back with my thumb.
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More like the Lobdell #38
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Yup, but the strength of this style is because they used metal twice as thick around, .060". The tubular rims are thinner metal but gain their strength due to the tubular cross section. It was better engineering versus wall thickness. Kind of like an egg.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

App

It mostly comes down to being able to reach this site on the device that has all the photos you want to share. Once you get the device with the pics to see this website, you just hit the Insert Image button at the top of the message you are typing in and it allows you to drag and drop them or click to brose to the folder where the pics are store

It mostly comes down to being able to reach this site on the device that has all the photos you want to share. Once you get the device with the pics to see this website, you just hit the Insert Image button at the top of the message you are typing in and it allows you to drag and drop them or click to brose to the folder where the pics are stored.

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Appreciate, I will work on it. Mind over matter.

John

 

[J-wagon]

Some pics of stainless steel schwinn rims 1940s showing quality of finished welds and in this thread:

Post in thread 'Schwinn Stainless 26” S-6 Rims' https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/schwinn-stainless-26”-s-6-rims.209210/post-1437400

 

[GTs58]

App



Appreciate, I will work on it. Mind over matter.

John

Are you gonna be using your desktop or your phone to do all this?