Can I run modern beach cruiser tires and wheels on an old Schwinn?

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Messages
134
Reaction score
180
Location
San Diego
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have a nice, straight 1964 Typhoon frame with S-7 Schwinn middleweight wheels. Was thinking about buying a later model beach cruiser and pirate the wheels off of it as part of the build. It has fenders on it. Will they still fit?

image.jpg
 
It'll be close. If the braces are long enough, you may still need to indent the fenders at the fork and seat stays. They use to have a slightly larger tire for S-7 but I haven't seen them in a while. You can definitely get some 2" aftermarket tires for the common standard rims.
 
Beach cruisers usually have the 2.125 inch width. I've used those with no fenders easily on Schwinn middleweight frames like yours. Your fenders don't look like Schwinn, they look a little bigger which would work with the standard wheels and tires. It looks like you have a little more clearance than with the middleweight fenders Schwinn would have put on there.
I've had others say they fit a standard wheel set and 2.125 tires with the factory fenders that came with their Schwinn middleweights. So, I think they will fit.

The black Duro 26 x 2.125 tires would be good, looks like the classic Schwinn pattern:

s-l300.jpg
 
Yes and yes. 3 speed nexus on an American and 7 speed nexus on the Tiger
 

Attachments

  • 0418DE08-4E25-4C51-A7D3-BDE30582341B.jpeg
    0418DE08-4E25-4C51-A7D3-BDE30582341B.jpeg
    787.3 KB · Views: 99
  • A32EB83F-4048-43E9-B3FC-0B206DC2491C.jpeg
    A32EB83F-4048-43E9-B3FC-0B206DC2491C.jpeg
    369.6 KB · Views: 85
  • 95BB5A15-E595-43B4-839E-E712503EFE8D.jpeg
    95BB5A15-E595-43B4-839E-E712503EFE8D.jpeg
    765.1 KB · Views: 79
  • 0D85E1E6-59F9-4DF6-81B6-7CFC8358EFBD.jpeg
    0D85E1E6-59F9-4DF6-81B6-7CFC8358EFBD.jpeg
    434.6 KB · Views: 102
Yes, they’ll fit.
For reference, here is a middleweight with middleweight fenders, with ‘standard’ 26” wheels and 2.125 wide tires.
View attachment 93080
Dangerous. Road junk, gravel etc. gets stuck between the tire and fender and causes a crash. Very old bikes had giant clearance to avoid fender/tire lockup. I have a friend, who worked with me before we were retired. Four years ago he was riding on the bike path and derbies got stuck between his oversized tires and fender. He remembers nothing except waking up 400 miles away in a brain trauma unit even though he wore a helmet. He now has very poor balance, walks shakily with a cane and has speech that is so poor and slow that I have a hard time understanding him. He can ride a low to the ground recumbent on the flat bike path. Over the bars on your head is bad as you stop immediately and your brain takes it all.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top