Schwinn American

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
Aug 3, 2024
Messages
30
Reaction score
75
Location
Indiana
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Picked this up beside a dumpster, number shows it to be a 54
IMG_6456.jpeg
IMG_6457.jpeg
 
What is the story with those front brakes? That is new to me.
Those are early Schwinn accessory bolt on cantilever brakes. They were popular klunker upgrade brakes from what I understand but may have had the tendency to slip a little and not be super strong brakes. The better upgrade for early downhill race klunkers was adding braze-on canti mounts to the fork of choice when cantis became more widely available. Drum brakes were popular, of course, but heavy. If you can find a set of these Schwinn accessory canti brakes they can be quite expensive.
1723154954254.png

1723155115015.png


Early Breezer with braze-on canti brake mounts
1723155251651.png
 
Not much wear on those brake blocks, and the paint looks good. Schwinn paint from then really holds up. I've seen those brakes listed in the accessories portion of the Schwinn ads.
 
You probably have one of the first Americans. They came out in 55, but the new Schwinn models were available before the new year. This shows the front brake was standard for your bike.

https://bikehistory.org/bikes/american/
 

Latest posts

Back
Top