Wartime Schwinn New World Bikes - We Know You Have Them - Tell Us About Them!!

[SirMike1983]

C48084 is a really beautiful, dark blue women's post-war New World. It is for sale on eBay, though the price is steep. This is a skip tooth single speed with coaster brake model. It looks pretty much correct to me and would be a remarkably good, blue bike for someone's collection if the price can be made reasonable.

Schwinn New World 1939 Skiptooth Prewar New Departure Torrington Mesinger Bike | eBay

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[Miq]

Paint on the blue bike is really nice. The saddle looks recovered to me with that dotted texture. Was that a saddle covering used on post war bikes? The price is whack, and it’s clearly not a 39, but it’s nice to look at.

Thank you for adding these post war bikes @SirMike1983 !

 

[GTs58]

Paint on the blue bike is really nice. The saddle looks recovered to me with that dotted texture. Was that a saddle covering used on post war bikes? The price is whack, and it’s clearly not a 39, but it’s nice to look at.
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Thank you for adding these post war bikes @SirMike1983 !

I'd say this one is a 1946. Not sure why such a nice piece would have Plumbers Tape for the brake arm strap. Might have to knock off a few grand for that non original part.

 

[SirMike1983]

Sometimes you get sellers or other people who see the skip tooth set up and presume it must be from before WWII. And then the assumption that if it is a pre-war Schwinn, must be worth a great deal of money.

The paint on that blue bike is really extraordinary.

I also just noticed it looks like one headbadge screw has been replaced. Not a big deal to replace it. The saddle might well be re-covered.

 

[Miq]

I was thinking 46 also from the other post war C serials on our chart. Things like 1" pitch and rear fork ends on bikes don't always mean prewar that's for sure...

 

[SirMike1983]

Has anyone documented the use of skip tooth gearing on New Worlds? My wife's old 1946 New World was skiptooth, as is my 1947 black New World. Some of the war era bikes were black-out skiptooth as well. I've seen pre-war catalogs saying you could get a heavy duty 3/16 width skip tooth chain. I'm not sure I've ever seen one on a pre-war New World. The pre-war bikes generally seem to be standard pitch 1/8 chains (whether 3-piece or one-piece cranks). And the later New Worlds from 1948-50 also seem to be standard pitch usually. Were skiptooth New Worlds confined to 1942-47? Does anyone own one of the earlier bikes with a stock 3/16 skip tooth HD drive?

 

[Miq]

@SirMike1983 we have seen a few prewar New Worlds with 1" pitch drivetrains but they have all been racers. Here is Darj's 1940 D serial bent fork racer:

Oldwizzer's 1940 D serial Racer

Champy's 1940 D serial racer

and that white G serial racer you found on eBay back in 2020 Mike:

I never noticed that before. The only prewar 1" pitch New World bikes we have seen are racers...

 

[Miq]

Added the postwar bikes. @GTs58 what do you think about 47 for the blue bike?

 

[GTs58]

@Miq
Here's @BFGforme 's 1945 DX. I don't believe the post war lightweights used the same BB shells as the balloon models but I'm thinking they were possibly stamped with a serial # around the same time. When these shells were used to build a frame is unknown, and it seems that the early post war serial # C series was used in multiple years. It looks like that blue New World has the smaller gauge drop out and supposedly the 47's had a thicker heavier gauge drop out.

What's interesting is that Schwinn was making BB shells and stamping them with serial numbers at a rate of 1500 to over 5000 per day in 1948. If we say that they only made 1000 per day at this particular time these two BB shells were produced only 4 days apart.

 

[cyclingday]

This insightful material, graciously provided by Mark Mattei.

Thank you, Mark!
Much appreciated!