1962 Schwinn American Heavy Duty

TornadoDave3 · Sunday at 6:11 PM

Hello ALL.... here is my lastest Barn Find: a 1962 Schwinn American Heavy Duty. In spite of it's ugly orange spray paint, it is actually in good condition and all original. A riend of mine actually found it in a barn, called me, and I had to have it!

When they named it the Heavy Duty, they were not kidding: It is a regular balloon frame, but has a really heavy set of wheels, with Schwinn Tractor Tires, double wall rims, and .125"diameter spokes. Plus it's got a factory original springer fork.

I have no clue as th what I'm going to build it into, but whatever it is.... it is going to be fun!

rickpaulos · Sunday at 6:28 PM

The heavy duti wheels were the same Schwinn put on the Schwinn Twin 1 speed tandems. A way of adding a new model with out having more parts to engineer & make.

musclebikemadman · Monday at 4:47 AM

TornadoDave3 said:
Hello ALL.... here is my lastest Barn Find: a 1962 Schwinn American Heavy Duty. In spite of it's ugly orange spray paint, it is actually in good condition and all original. A riend of mine actually found it in a barn, called me, and I had to have it!

When they named it the Heavy Duty, they were not kidding: It is a regular balloon frame, but has a really heavy set of wheels, with Schwinn Tractor Tires, double wall rims, and .125"diameter spokes. Plus it's got a factory original springer fork.

I have no clue as th what I'm going to build it into, but whatever it is.... it is going to be fun!View attachment 288786 View attachment 288787

That spring fork is assembled all wrong. The HD did not come equipt with a spring fork but it surely could have been ordered from the dealer with one. Hopefully that spray bomb cleans off easily. I'm interested to see if the other parts are original. The crank should have a C stamped on the non drive side leg it is visible without disassembly. Also the early HD bikes had extra brazing added to the cantilever bars where it connects to seat post and down tube. I love my HD bikes I have a few. Keep us posted as you go along, regardless of what you find that is a great bike. Good luck

TornadoDave3 · Monday at 9:08 AM

musclebikemadman said:
That spring fork is assembled all wrong. The HD did not come equipt with a spring fork but it surely could have been ordered from the dealer with one. Hopefully that spray bomb cleans off easily. I'm interested to see if the other parts are original. The crank should have a C stamped on the non drive side leg it is visible without disassembly. Also the early HD bikes had extra brazing added to the cantilever bars where it connects to seat post and down tube. I love my HD bikes I have a few. Keep us posted as you go along, regardless of what you find that is a great bike. Good luck

yep.... it is assembled wrong, and has a number of other problems, too. Some bozo used some sort of green glue (locktite?) on the stem, and on the headset bearing nut. AND somebody tried to drill out the stem, but only succeded in making it more difficult to remove. The stem bolt was just glued in place.... just for appearance sake. As a result, the stem is firmly glued into the forks. I'm going to get out the torch today, and see if the glue will soften.

If that doesn't work, I'm getting out the side grinder and cutting the stem. SO I might be looking for a good, usable set of forks, and the right stem.

I'll check on the crank letter. It does have the heavier brazing, so I'm confident it is a HD frame.

Thanks for the comments.

musclebikemadman · Monday at 9:17 AM

TornadoDave3 said:
yep.... it is assembled wrong, and has a number of other problems, too. Some bozo used some sort of green glue (locktite?) on the stem, and on the headset bearing nut. AND somebody tried to drill out the stem, but only succeded in making it more difficult to remove. The stem bolt was just glued in place.... just for appearance sake. As a result, the stem is firmly glued into the forks. I'm going to get out the torch today, and see if the glue will soften.

If that doesn't work, I'm getting out the side grinder and cutting the stem. SO I might be looking for a good, usable set of forks, and the right stem.

I'll check on the crank letter. It does have the heavier brazing, so I'm confident it is a HD frame.

Thanks for the comments.

There is a outfit in VT that can remove the stuck stem but you need to leave as much of it sticking out of the fork as possible. Hopefully you can get things unstuck on your own. Good luck

1962 Schwinn American Heavy Duty

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