Unique parts to the first-year 1954 Corvette

[GTs58]

Thanks for posting those ads Chris. I see another oddity in the illustrations. The light seems to be attached to the front rack hardware. Never have I seen that before. Here's my P51370 SN 3/3 - 3/10/55 with the odd long stem mount for the light as shown in the Schwinn picture Darcie posted.

Note the drilled fork and flat rear fender/caliper bracket on a coaster model.

 

[Nickinator]

Gary what do those bars measure? They look like the standard 22".
Darcie

 

[GTs58]

They're 19.5" and the ends are straight back. Tried to find a picture that would show that better.

 

[jimsbeercans]

Never had a 54/55 corvette. Very interesting and copied all info for my research. THANKS!

 

[rhenning]

The other thing I liked about that first early ad is it says the the bikes used 26 x 1.75 tires which was never true. Ads do not always look like exactly what was sold. Roger

 

[kingsting]

Here's a picture of my 55. I've had it since 1991 and never did a lot of research on it. It has the wrong headlight but has the ballooner saddle and a 1954 dated hub.

 

[Nickinator]

Here's a picture of my 55. I've had it since 1991 and never did a lot of research on it. It has the wrong headlight but has the ballooner saddle and a 1954 dated hub.

Great bike! Nice to see a boy's bike with the ballooner seat. What is your S/N? Also your rack does not look like the real early one, but may be the angle.

Darcie

 

[Nickinator]

They're 19.5" and the ends are straight back. Tried to find a picture that would show that better.

Well that's interesting, the bars I posted a pic of are 17", the bars on my other '54 serial numbered bike are 18". So they were obviously using a few different width bars, maybe from various existing models....and they got wider as time went on, to 22" by sometime in '56.

Darcie

 

[cds2323]

The other thing I liked about that first early ad is it says the the bikes used 26 x 1.75 tires which was never true. Ads do not always look like exactly what was sold. Roger

This has been discussed before. I find it interesting that the 54 and 55 catalog images show 26 x 1.75 tires.

http://thecabe.com/forum/threads/26x1-75-tires-for-schwinn.88772/

 

[GTs58]

The 1961 Co-ed has Schwinn 1.75" Whitewalls and this was years after the intro of Westwinds. The mention of 1.75 in Schwinn lit is found in almost all the years prior to this. The 1955 and 56 literature states the middleweights had the Tornado 1.75 tires and in 1957 no mention of the tire name but the size reference was still 1.75. The Westwinds from what I can find were first mentioned in the 1958 literature.

http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1961_1970/1961dlr_Co_ed.html