Old Schwinn Typhoon Project - City Bike

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gWebber

gWebber

Old School Schwinn’s Rule
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Haven’t been on RatBikes site in a long time, nice to be back with a build.

Bought a Schwinn Typhoon off eBay a good while back , everything but wheels , reasonable cheap.
Sat around a long time due to my health issues, but now I’m recovering (again) so going to get this together for exercise.

First thing was trying to figure out what year it was built, odd serial number (single letter instead of double) took forever to find a correct date … Jan 1962 seems to be the one.

Anyway, overall bike is bone stock Typhoon , but I’m adding some mid rise breeze bars as I not a fan of the stock flat bars much. Needs some dent fixing on fenders and the typical under front fork fender bolt is of Course snapped off ((drill& tap).

To ease ride ability for this old guy , I spread the rear frame and added a modern 3 Speed hub & wheel. Pretty easy on a steel frame.

Plan to add small metal front basket for lugging small items as needed and looking for a Schwinn or similar old style tail rack just to keep the over all look.

Also needs a weld on one of the rails, some dummy tried to steal it by attempting to bolt cut the frame rail … nice jaws dent and a cracked weld … personally I guess.
 

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The first year for the Typhoon was 1962 and that year it had two small straight bars under the top tube.
The 1963 model year was the first for the cantilever frame Typhoon.
Looks like yours was red before the black paint was added.
It could be a different model of Schwinn such as the Fleet, Panther, Corvette, etc.
Schwinn used the same frame for many models. The more deluxe models had tabs for tanks and elevated seat stay bridges for hand brakes for the 3 speed versions.
And there were some exceptions like elevated seat stay bridges for 1 speed versions (My guess is they ran out of certain frames and subbed others)
There were also the rarer King Size frames that had a taller head tube for taller riders.

The serial number location on the left rear dropout ran from 1960 to 1969 on the regular Chicago EF Schwinns.
Schwinn reset the serial numbers in 1965. A for 1965, B for 1966, etc.
Yours (A52131) would be a 1965 Schwinn.
They soon added another letter for the month.
By 1970 there were usually 6 digits as they were making more than 99,999 bikes per month.
They moved the serial numbers to the head tube in 1970.

Looks like the wheels have been change out. Schwinn didn't use Shimano coaster brake hubs. New Departure, then they switched to Bendix in the later 1950s. Many wheels got changed because owners couldn't find 26 x 1 3/4" tires to fit the oddball Schwinn S7 rims. Production has been in and out for those tires with varied results over the years. 26 x 1.75 were much more available so it was often easier to change the wheels. The S2 rim is the current standard size for all new bikes and has been since 1983. The sizes are on the tires if you look close.

It almost looks like a 24" typhoon with the smaller 26 x 1.75 wheels on it. The tire clearance is way too tight for a 26" frame that had fenders. The seat is the junior model of S seat with the hinge on the nose and the steel pan (not comfortable at all). The junior seats were oem on 24" bikes. They had a even harder S seat for the 20" bikes with less spring.

26 x 1 3/4" have a bead seat diameter of 571 mm.
26 x 1.75" have a bead seat diameter of 559 mm.

that's about 1/2" difference in wheel diameter. Hum I wonder if a 26" would fit a 24" frame. I often rebuild bikes with 24" wheels in 26" frames so I can fit wider tires.
 
Last edited:
rickpaulos said:
The first year for the Typhoon was 1962 and that year it had two small straight bars under the top tube.
The 1963 model year was the first for the cantilever frame Typhoon.
Looks like yours was red before the black paint was added.
It could be a different model of Schwinn such as the Fleet, Panther, Corvette, etc.
Schwinn used the same frame for many models. The more deluxe models had tabs for tanks and elevated seat stay bridges for hand brakes for the 3 speed versions.
And there were some exceptions like elevated seat stay bridges for 1 speed versions (My guess is they ran out of certain frames and subbed others)
There were also the rarer King Size frames that had a taller head tube for taller riders.

The serial number location on the left rear dropout ran from 1960 to 1969 on the regular Chicago EF Schwinns.
Schwinn reset the serial numbers in 1965. A for 1965, B for 1966, etc.
Yours (A52131) would be a 1965 Schwinn.
They soon added another letter for the month.
By 1970 there were usually 6 digits as they were making more than 99,999 bikes per month.
They moved the serial numbers to the head tube in 1970.

Looks like the wheels have been change out. Schwinn didn't use Shimano coaster brake hubs. New Departure, then they switched to Bendix in the later 1950s. Many wheels got changed because owners couldn't find 26 x 1 3/4" tires to fit the oddball Schwinn S7 rims. Production has been in and out for those tires with varied results over the years. 26 x 1.75 were much more available so it was often easier to change the wheels. The S2 rim is the current standard size for all new bikes and has been since 1983. The sizes are on the tires if you look close.

It almost looks like a 24" typhoon with the smaller 26 x 1.75 wheels on it. The tire clearance is way too tight for a 26" frame that had fenders. The seat is the junior model of S seat with the hinge on the nose and the steel pan (not comfortable at all). The junior seats were oem on 24" bikes. They had a even harder S seat for the 20" bikes with less spring.

26 x 1 3/4" have a bead seat diameter of 571 mm.
26 x 1.75" have a bead seat diameter of 559 mm.

that's about 1/2" difference in wheel diameter. Hum I wonder if a 26" would fit a 24" frame. I often rebuild bikes with 24" wheels in 26" frames so I can fit wider tires.
Click to expand...
Yes, I added the new wheels with a 3 speed. The red paint under black I believe is primer as it’s not really “red” it’s a bit more oxide in color.
As to anything else, it was bought as a pile of parts so some might not be original to the bike, like the seat … but hats all an unknown.

Thanks for all the detail information
 

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