Thursday, June 29, 2017

1947 Schwinn Continental

It's hard to believe that it's already the end of June. It's truly summer here now, with temperatures around 90 and plenty of humidity. The evening and the early morning are the best times to ride, and I take a little over an hour each evening to ride.

 This 1947 Schwinn Continental has a great combination of an American-made, fillet brazed frame; classic American-style bright parts; a great tint of blue; and the excellent Sturmey Archer 3-speed AW transmission.

I really like the chainring on these Continentals: it's simple, elegant, and functional.  The three-piece bottom bracket that Schwinn used is based on what the Birmingham-made English bikes used, and seem to be closest to the Brimingham Hercules family of parts.

This bike also has a really neat, two-piece stem. This stem has a steel pillar, but an aluminum neck. The bolts are monogrammed with the company logo: "AS". Balloon tire bicycle collectors seek out this style of stem for their bikes, and you even sometimes see these bikes missing the stems and for sale with either the wrong stem, or no bars/stem at all. This one is intact, and it's great.


  1. How did you convert the old S/A 3 speed top tube shifter? I have one of these and would like to use it on a '53 Rudge.

    1. No conversion necessary on this one - that is the stock shifter. The Schwinn bikes kept using the top tube shifter up to about 1949. The English went to handle bar shifters well before Schwinn did.

      Your '53 Rudge can be converted by removing the old handlebar shifter and the cable that goes with it (save both).

      You mount the top tube (quadrant) shifter on the top tube. You then buy a Sunlight Sturmey Archer-style 3-speed cable. That Sunlite cable is generic and has a pinch bolt, allowing you to use whatever length of it you need. You put ferruled end into the top tube shifter's sleeve and thread the cable as needed, through the pulley and down to the hub. You do not use any cable housing with this - just the bare cable.

      You can re-use the same pulley as before, but may have to adjust the position of it slightly to get a straight cable angle.


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