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

[Miq]

@bikiba It’s been nice to see more threads about lightweights lately. They have a elegant sexiness that the tank bikes don’t match. Were the New Worlds you had 50’s bikes?

Betting your wartime rollfast is sweet. Does it have ND blackout parts? That would be something I can see you having on your bike.

 

[detroitbike]

Were the wartime bikes limited to certain models?
I have a tourist 3 speed 26” wheel Paramount with blackout
hubs. I’ll have to check the hub stamp & S/N .

 

[Miq]

I don’t know for sure but I can imagine lightweight “victory” bikes being what they concentrated on when they were building the small number of bikes during those years. They were supposed to be a way for people to conserve gas and still commute without using a lot of steel like a new car. Making a balloon bike with tanks and accessories would not make sense.

The Paramount would be another lightweight they would have probably made during wartime if they had the parts for them on hand. I’d be interested to see what the serial number is....

 

[GTs58]

Cycle Trucks made up the vast majority of Schwinn's war time production with slightly over 10,000 units being made in both 1943 and 1944. There were 6364 units made in 1942. Schwinn's total bike production numbers exceeded the Cycle Truck's 10,000 units per year that the Government approved. No CT's were said to be produced in 1945-46. There have been some off the radar serial numbers mentioned by collectors that were on some balloon tire bikes but nobody has mentioned the idea that they could have been war time production.

Here are the total production numbers said to be published.

1942 - 112,859
1943 - 16,385
1944 - 18,929
1945 - 98,185

 

[Miq]

Makes sense that cycle trucks would be produced. Utility work bike.

@GTs58 Did you mean that the cycle truck production was slightly over 100k each year? (Not just the approved 10k)? Total production numbers you showed are +100k during wartime. How many of those were NOT cycle trucks?

 

[GTs58]

Believe what you want. I slept thru History classes, thought most of it was made up or incorrect. :eek:.... Fixed
Thanks for heads up on the type error @Miq

I copied & pasted the pages but they took up to much room here.

Total Production Numbers.
http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1893_1940/1932_1965_sls_qtys.html

Cycle Truck Production Numbers.
http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1893_1940/1939_nw99.html

 

[bikiba]

@bikiba It’s been nice to see more threads about lightweights lately. They have a elegant sexiness that the tank bikes don’t match. Were the New Worlds you had 50’s bikes?

Betting your wartime rollfast is sweet. Does it have ND blackout parts? That would be something I can see you having on your bike.

I believe the blue new world i had was a late 30s and the maroon 50s. Im sure I posted them both here over the years.

here is the rollfast, i still have it, from cracked fork to welding to riding: https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/1941-ish-rollfast-lightweight.62994/

 

[Miq]

@bikiba That was quite a journey getting the rollfast back on the road! Nice work! I really enjoyed getting to see the pics of you sister in law’s dad's silversmithing bench. Cool stuff!

 

[Miq]

@GTs58 Thanks for revising the war time production numbers. It looks like they made less than 10k "victory" bikes that were not cycle trucks each year. I'm enjoying seeing the ones that are still left surviving. Blackout parts, mixed up franken parts, changes in welding techniques during those years, etc. I dig it. It's hard to figure out but cool to try.

Amazing that they had built up production capabilities to almost 400k bikes/year before the war and were able to quickly exceed that number after the war. Making secret military parts in high volume didn't stop them from pushing a few lightweights out the door too.

 

[Jim sciano]

Scored a decent original new world today. Looks to be completely untouched. Serial # F87335. No blackout parts & too bad it’s not a men’s. My guess is a 40-41. Anyone have any better ideas, please let me know. Appears to have the original tires too. Never heard of schwinn whirlwind tires. The rims say schwinn superior stamped on them. Rear large flange schwinn script hub. I haven’t cleaned the grease off the front hub but it appears to be a standard script hub. Torrington pedals. Also, any idea of what style grips belong in this? Not sure if this will help with the chart your building.