Schwinn 27" s-6 wheel question

[sloar]

I just acquired a 1976 schwinn suburban. It needs new tires, do the 27" s-6 rims take special schwinn tires, or will any brand work? Thanks

 

[kingsting]

26" S-6 was special size, 27" S-6 like on a Suburban, can use a standard 27 x 1-1/4" tire no problem. Same rim as a Varsity or Continental. I've changed hundreds of them over the years. I like the slightly larger 27 x 1-3/8" but watch your fender clearances with those. They're a little close.

 

[Bicycle808]

KingSting for the win. Schwinn S6 is a "normal" tire, when it comes to the 27" (630mm ETRTO) size. Not the case for 26". You did the right thing in asking, though; with Schwinn tires, there's no such thing as a stupid question. The Schwinn ppl have thrown many curveballs.

 

[Wildcat]

My Dad would always cuss when putting tires on my brothers and my bikes as we grew up. If it was a Schwinn tire, 20", 24", or 26", it would require a Schwinn tire to work, costing more. Sometimes a Schwinn wheel showed up on a standard bike, resulting in more colorful language. But on my 27" Schwinn 10 speeds, the standard 27" would work.

 

[Bicycle808]

Schwinn s2 stuff is "normal" for 20s, 24s and 26s....

 

[kingsting]

Schwinn kept throwing us curve balls with tire sizes right up to their bankruptcy late in 1992. The Miradas and Frontiers from around 1991 used a difficult to find (at the time) 26 x 1-1/2 (650B) tire size. Never really got an explanation about that either. I'm surprised they didn't try the oddball 700D size tires that GT used on one of their obscure hybrids back then.

 

[Bicycle808]

Yeah, imagine that. I've never even SEEN a 700d; it's got a BSD right between 650b (584mm) and EA3 (590mm). Such things should be illegal, imho.

Schwinn was way ahead of the curve as far as 650b on mtbs go, although Tom Richey was purportedly building 650b mountain bikes and running Nokian knobbies back in the late 70s.... I'd have been sooooo mad if i'd bought one of those 650b Schwinns and found I couldn't replace the danged tires....

 

[Bicycle808]

What'd they call the 650b Schwinn size? S4, was it?

 

[Bendix]

What'd they call the 650b Schwinn size? S4, was it?

on the old town and country tandems it was labelled an s-4, on the later mtbs i think the 's' designations had gone by the wayside and it was just labeled 26x1 1/2.... ;-)