Sucked In Again By A Schwinn Suburban

[marching_out]

At that price and condition, I would have snatched it up as well! A new set of whitewalls would make that thing sweet.

 

[SirMike1983]

These bikes fall into the cracks between the collector interest areas. Lightweight collectors tend to value lighter, higher end frames and components. Balloon tire and middleweight collectors don't mind the weight, but value older bikes that are more equipped. It's not that these are bad bikes, it's just they don't hit any particular collector interest straight-on.

What's left for a market then are tag sales, garage sales, and the occasional commuter and knock-about. Those tend to be buyers looking for something functional and inexpensive to buy. Maybe that's not such a bad thing because you can still get a good one for not much money.

On 27 x 1-1/4 rims, I like the widest tire I can run under the fenders comfortably. Often that means the Panaracer Pasela, which is a good quality tire for the money that gives a supple ride. The cheaper 27 x 1-1/4 tires are awful riders, in my experience.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

These bikes fall into the cracks between the collector interest areas. Lightweight collectors tend to value lighter, higher end frames and components. Balloon tire and middleweight collectors don't mind the weight, but value older bikes that are more equipped. It's not that these are bad bikes, it's just they don't hit any particular collector interest straight-on.

What's left for a market then are tag sales, garage sales, and the occasional commuter and knock-about. Those tend to be buyers looking for something functional and inexpensive to buy. Maybe that's not such a bad thing because you can still get a good one for not much money.

On 27 x 1-1/4 rims, I like the widest tire I can run under the fenders comfortably. Often that means the Panaracer Pasela, which is a good quality tire for the money that gives a supple ride. The cheaper 27 x 1-1/4 tires are awful riders, in my experience.

Your tire recommendations could have been made fifty years ago! The Schwinn dealer had three "Schwinn Branded" tires to offer his customer. The original Suburban model tire was a gum wall 75# pressure Schwinn Puff. This tire was dual sourced by Schwinn. Carlisle made one, and one was an imported tire. The next grade up was a gum wall Schwinn HP Sport (high pressure) 85# tire, and the top of the line was the "skin wall" Le Tour 85# tire. The Le Tour tire was used on any "top of the line" model including Paramount Tandems. Ironically Panaracer made all of these Schwinn imported tires fifty years ago, and they still make top of the line tires based on your recommendations.

John

 

[AndyA]

Love them blue bikes!

 

[Eric Amlie]

I've long thought that Schwinn should have offered a tourist style bike like the Suburban with the fillet brazed chrome-moly frame.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

I've long thought that Schwinn should have offered a tourist style bike like the Suburban with the fillet brazed chrome-moly frame.

Schwinn offered a Paramount "tourist option".

The bike you are asking for was offered as the Le Tour Tourist. Lugged frame, offered in three frame sizes in men's and two in ladies. The ladies frame was a MIxte frame, both had plastic fenders. If you ever had a chance to ride one, you would not think of Suburban's again.

The problem was not bicycles at this point. This all happened around the time the UAW struck Schwinn's Chicago factory. Schwinn was scrambling to resource the product line "outside the factory". The newly designed "Uni Lug" Le Tour found a home at Panasonic/National for production. It returned to Greenville, MS years later.

John

 

[SirMike1983]

This whole class of bicycles exists in between the 1970s road bikes and the earlier English-style utility bikes. They have a few features of each type. They have a lot to offer by way of ergonomics and basic capabilities. Many riders prefer flat or upright bars, but many were pushed into drop bars because of the road and race oriented cycling culture of the early and mid 1970s.

In some ways, they are the forerunners of today's hybrid and "comfort" type all-purpose bikes.

The Suburban was a basic, but durable bike in this class. It made for a decent campus grocery store knock-about type utility bike.

The Le Tour Tourist was an example of a good quality bike in the middle of the class with 1020 steel tubing, lugged construction, and cotterless cranks. A Le Tour Tourist:

At the top of the chain would be a Paramount Tourist or the Raleigh Super Tourer, which had a high-end 531 frame, cotterless cranks, and many aluminum alloy parts.

One thing that can help is if the bike can convert to 700c wheels because it opens up a wide array of good quality tires and rims today.

 

[Eric Amlie]

29.3 lbs. doesn't sound too bad for the LeTour tourist. I wonder what it would be with 4130 chrome-moly rather than the 1020 carbon steel.
From comparing the weight of a 21" '63 Varsity frameset(10.9 lbs.) to a 22" '66 Super Sport frameset(8.7 lbs), it looks like the fillet brazed frames saved about 2.2 lbs. Both framesets had the headsets & bottom bracket cups installed, and the Varsity had the kickstand removed.
I built my own fillet brazed tourist model from a '76 Superior. Unfortunately I don't have a weight for the completed bike, but it's a nice rider with wide range gearing.

 

[razinhellcustomz]

Love them blue bikes!

View attachment 2099163

Really nice Suburban. Always loved this blue color too.

 

[partsguy]

These are great daily riders. Why would anyone spend $200 or more on China JUNK at Walmart instead of browsing for one of these that will last decades without major issue.