Sold Rare vintage pre-war Schwinn Paramount (??? or perhaps Superior,Racer) mattress narrow racing saddle.....flat rails and metal SCHWINN badge.

[donmac70]

Acquired from an avid collector of pre-war Schwinns and classic Paramounts, came with a tag on underside as shown marked P-12 (early Paramount racer???). It's quite narrow and meant to be for racing not a tourist saddle. Small 16mm set post clamp though could be changed out for a larger diameter seat post. Saddle is in quite nice condition especially for being 80+- years old showing careful use and nice patina. Click on photos for a close look.

 

[Andrew Gorman]

Interesting piece! Schwinn were trying-but not very hard- to keep selling bikes to adults from the 1930s on up. There were several velodromes in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1940s and one is still left-

Home Page - Hellyer Velodrome

Welcome to the Hellyer Park Velodrome website. The Velodrome is a bike racing track located in Hellyer County Park in San Jose. We host track racing in the summer months and riding/training sessions all year.

hellyervelodrome.com

But almost any Raleigh would blow the doors off of aNew World, Superior or Paramount at that time.

 

[Miq]

Neat saddle in great shape. I haven't seen a racing one like that before. The Tourist version is a lot wider with even more "mattress" style springs in the nose.

GLWTS

 

[bobcycles]

Beautiful saddle...I have the exact same one, only one I had ever seen until this one of yours.
Really a remarkably mfg'd seat and verrrrry rare I would say

 

[rennfaron]

IMO it's an early 50s lightweight saddle that had a short run in 1950-51 (maybe more) when the first World Travelers hit the floor. A '50 and '51 World Traveler shown below. I don't think these were ever on superiors/paramounts. This one looks more narrow, like a racing saddle, because I think those sides folded down and in some.

 

[donmac70]

Interesting similarities but mine definitely is a narrower version with the rear frame symmetriclly folded down (which looks like original from factory) and no tourist saddle bag loops (Schwinn catalog shows the early 50's Traveler with a saddle bag suggesting loops would of been on that model)???

 

[cyclingday]

I agree, that it’s an early 50’s Continental type saddle.
Possibly intended to be a alternative mattress type for a Sport Clubman?

 

[rennfaron]

The early Traveler saddles didn't always have loops. There is another more common version that came out around the same time that has larger rails at the bottom. These didn't have loops, but were on early Travelers. You just had to loop the saddle bag straps around the springs. These also appeared around the same time, maybe even slightly earlier. Travelers always came with a saddle bag, so it's strange they wouldn't have loops on on all saddles that went on the model.

The darker green example above didn't have loops and the light green one did. The dark green is older than the light green.

I did find a 1950 superior ladies with a similar saddle, but hard to say if original (maybe/maybe not). Last pic

 

[SirMike1983]

I agree that it looks early 1950s to me as well. If it has the small-type clamp, I tend to think it suggests a World Traveler or post-war Superior with a welded frame. I would think the Paramount and Continental would have the larger type saddle clamp because their frame tubes are different from the smaller diameter welded bikes. I understand that can be changed, but this clamp looks pretty consistent with the rest of the saddle.

 

[donmac70]

Hi Rennfaron, Cyclingday, SirMike & Miq......you guys are quite thorough, thank you for your interest and research!!!

That makes the most sense to me perhaps for the early 50's sporty Clubman Sport (except the narrow clamp, the Clubman would have a larger diameter) being narrower, no bag loops and with no coiled springs........so perhaps it's early 50's. I'm confused with these older mattress saddles as most of my bikes have the stretched suspended leather (ie. Brooks, Ideale). Here is another Schwinn 3 springer mattress saddle (see attached photos) from the same lot with a "Schwinn Superior" stamp on top rear (no metal Schwinn badge on rear or sign that it had been there and now missing), is that model just for the Superior or was it also used on the Paramount Tourist???