tires - 1955 Schwinn Spitfire and 1952 seers SportCrest

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Halfdone

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Yippee.....the two 24 in bikes I won on US ebay have finally arived here .....NINE months

They both run 24 x 1 3/4 tires.

I am going to store the original rims and 3 tires.

and fit modern 24 in wheels, with 3spd coaster.

SO ..... will 24 x 2.125 www tires fit these guys.....before I drop the dollars on ordering them.

FR.jpg


Seers_1~0.jpg
 
MagicRat said:
Congrats on the bikes...WOW,9 months?
Click to expand...

My 8 year old has been going nuts waiting for his one (sears) to arrive.

They took a couple of weeks to get from Florida and North Dalota to a shipping handler in LongBeach CA.
They then took 4 months to make it into a container and across the pond.
Then they sat at a mates place in Melbourne for a few months before they got here.

This weekend he is going to help me throw on a set of modern 24" wheels and some beach kroozer bars.

3spd coaster brake wheels are REAL hard to find here as we had caliper brakes on everything ....... but in the 9 months I managed to get lucky and find TWO girls bikes with 3spd coasters, already laced into 24" rims. One is a German SACHS, but the other is a strange hub that looks like a SA, but with the shift mechanism on the same side as the brake arm.

Not sure where I'm gonna put the shifters, as I don't like the look of cables on the bars, but want to make them usable for my boys. Maybe I'll go with bar mounted ones for now, and then do suicide shifters when they get used to riding 24" bikes..... they are on 20" at the moment as we had bugger all cool frames in bigger sizes here.

Mark
 
CCR said:
The Schwinn should do fine with balloon tires (2.125), the catalog suggests it should already be that size tire on it if the wheels are original though.

http://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1951 ... 55_17.html

dont know about the other bike though, im sure they would fit on the bike, but the fenders might have to go if space is limited
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I'm having trouble working out what rims they are on the Schwinn ....... the brochure says they should be "tubular s-2" ..... but as I have never had my hands on a vintage schwinn I have NO idea what I'm looking at, and if they only suite the special size schwinn tyres.

As I want to fit 3spd coasters to make them more usable, I guess I will just order in a 24 x 2.125 and try it on the front and back of each bike. A bit of work, but its shouldn't interupt my important drinking time too much :mrgreen:

One of the sacrificial girls bikes has some nice old 24 1.75 wide whitewalls, and I also have some old 24 x 1.75 narrow whites, so I guess they can go on for a while.

I want to keep the original rims and 3 tires safe, as these bikes will fetch good money in original condition when the kids step up to 26" in a few years time.
NEVER seen a Schwinn 24" here, let alone the Sears SportCrest

(oh yeah....does anyone know who made the SportsCrest for sears.....is it really a Murray? )
 
Halfdone said:
...

(oh yeah....does anyone know who made the SportsCrest for sears.....is it really a Murray? )
Click to expand...

looks like it to me, the pointy dropouts are the easiest way to spot them.
 
CCR said:
Halfdone said:
...

(oh yeah....does anyone know who made the SportsCrest for sears.....is it really a Murray? )
Click to expand...

looks like it to me, the pointy dropouts are the easiest way to spot them.
Click to expand...

Cool ........ I can tick Murray off the list then :roll:

A few more makes still on my "one day" list ............. and NONE of them sold new in Australia
 
I remembering seeing that Murray made Sears bike on ebay a long time ago. Nice bikes, good luckw ith the conversions.
 
The seers was from a guy in Fargo North Dakota, who seems to be a regular old bike seller on US ebay.
I recognize his listings because they are always photographed on the timber landing outside the timber barn door ..... I have a thing for timber buildings :roll:

He had a Schwinn Heavy Duty not long ago that I was tempted by.

Very good to deal with, real prompt shipping (USPS) and it was packed really well ........ my 9 year old had great fun with the bubble wrap.

Can't remember the guys ebay seller ID.....I'll have to look through my emails when I get home.
 
I'm having trouble working out what rims they are on the Schwinn ....... the brochure says they should be "tubular s-2" ..... but as I have never had my hands on a vintage schwinn I have NO idea what I'm looking at, and if they only suite the special size schwinn tyres.
Click to expand...

Your Schwinn looks like a ballooner to me, as opposed to a middleweight. If so, the rims should be stamped "Schwinn Tubular S-2" right down the middle of the side that shows. The spoke holes may be drilled partially through the stamping. The paint tends to fill in the lettering a bit so you have to look close. If you do indeed have S-2 rims, a 24 X 2.125 tire would be correct. You could also go with the 24 X 1.75 if need be.
If by chance your rims are stamped "Schwinn Tubular S-7", then you have the special rims that take the odd 24 X 1 3/4 tires.
24 X 1.75 and 24 X 1 3/4 are different sizes and will not interchange. B607
 
Thanks B607.

Ballooner vs Middleweight is what I'm trying to work out I guess.

The Spitfire model seems to have started out as a ballooner and then as new models got released it moved down the model "ranking" and became a "price conscious" middleweight.

My one has the serial number P77915, which comes up as either a 1952 Ballooner or a 1957 Middleweight depending on which serial number list I refer too.
The two tone seat and the chainguard design would suggest it's a 1957..... I think ?

I looked at the rims with my bigass 3.0 reading glasses I use for welding and one of the rims has something written in one spot, but it's got too much rust to read. The other doesn't seem to have any stamping.

It's a sunny saturday now, so I'm gonna get the seers new owner out in the drive giving it a good wash, then get him to do the steelwool and brasso routine on the modern rims I have planned for it and see if they will fit with the www I have here.

Meanwhile, I'll try the modern schwinn wheels on the Spitfire (it's owner is on school camp untill Wednesday.

One general question ...... when people say Schwinn rims take "special size tires" is it just that they are a unique width, or are they a different diameter or bead design to normal tires ??
 
S-7 wheels take 1 3/4" tires which are a different diameter than the 1.75 or 2.125 tires which fit S-2 rims. No way they will interchange. You will find the Schwinn S-7 wheel and tire is larger than a standard rim with a 1.75 tire mounted.

To determine if your frame is a balloon or middleweight, use the first 3 fingers on your hand. Just behind the seat post clamp there is a triangular area formed by the tubes coming up from the rear end and the upper fender bracket. If you insert your 3 fingers into this triangle area, resting them on the fender bracket, you'll be able to tell the difference. On the balloon frame, your fingers will go into the triangle easily with room to spare. On a middleweight, your fingers won't fit...or, they will fit very tight depending on the size of your fingers, of course. I'll take some pics tomorrow of my frames and fingers and post them here so you'll know. B607
 
Looks like it's a middleweight.....3 fingers just fit, but squashed up a bit.

It basically has the same width at the fender as the new Schwinn Corvette we have, and WAY narrower than the Dyno balloon tyre bikes that take a 24 x 3 Fireball.
 
If that is the original seat, it is most likely a mid-weight, meaning S-7's. If the tires say 1 & 3/4 and NOT 1.75, it is 99.9% likely to be S-7's. 2.125's do not fit on S-7s
 

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