Schwinn Continental Clubman...I think??

[TLSell]

Thanks everybody! Fascinating stuff for sure!! If you have any other specific requests for pics of stuff or whatever...I'll check this once in a while and can always ask my buddy for them.

 

[GTs58]

I'm Totally baffled again! This makes two 1955 Clubman builds? But dating it just by the rear hub?

The Continental and the Clubman were said to be discontinued in 1954.

The BB shell is a Tandem shell and Schwinn has used these on various lightweights.

01/19 /1949--- T001000 ----- T001217 -(TDM) This is the first set of numbers that were recorded and the shells were made then the serial was machine stamped.
Here is the last of the Tandem shells that were recorded in 1950. So the shell on this piece would have been made and stamped sometime between these recorded stampings. Your build time using the 1955 serial list is incorrect. Those serial numbers are short a digit. There are 5 numbers after the T for those numbers. There is really no way of knowing when this Clubman was actually built.

07/18 ------------------ T002347 ----- T002490 -(TDM)
07/19 ------------------ T002491 ----- T002662 -(TDM)
07/19 ------------------ G206545 --------------- G206149
07/20 ------------------ G206150 --------------- G209531
07/21 ------------------ G209532 --------------- G211886
07/24 ------------------ G211887 --------------- G214820
07/24 ------------------ T002663 ----- T003035 -(TDM)

 

[SirMike1983]

I wonder if the wheels are a later replacement given the apparently chrome rather than stainless rims and possibly later hubs. That might explain the lower tier wheels with a later date stamp than the bottom bracket shell.

 

[GTs58]

I wonder if the wheels are a later replacement given the apparently chrome rather than stainless rims and possibly later hubs. That might explain the lower tier wheels with a later date stamp than the bottom bracket shell.

Ever seen that shifter on a 1955 Schwinn, or even on a Clubman? I believe this is the 1953 catalog page and it specs chrome S-6 rims.

 

[SirMike1983]

Not for 1949 and later. The striped quadrant is a 1940s era shifter, later than the flat faced quadrant and the black print quadrant. But the New Worlds, Continentals, and Superiors I have owned that had quadrant shifters all dated to no later than early 1948. The 1949 and later models I've owned all had handlebar click shifters. The 1949-50 had the short-lived Silver face shifters with black writing, followed by the common window shifter. After 1950, also the common window shifters. Some shifters include the "idiot proofing" solution of the Bottom gear lock out rivet. A number of shifters produced by Sturmey Archer in the 1950s for the US market (particularly Schwinn and Columbia) of the window variety have lock-out installed below the "Low" gear and above the "Bottom" gear because not all shops in the US knew to set up the three speeds on gears 2,3,4 (not started on gear 1 or bottom).

Not a huge deal if the parts were changed, especially fairly early in the bike's life. Usually these kinds of bikes were well-ridden because that's the kind of owner you get with a sporting machine. Good paint on this one too.