Recently there have been three mid-40s to early '50s Schwinn Clubman bikes that have been sold on eBay that were part of a group of bikes that belonged to club members that were part of the Cincinnati Cycling Club. Prices ranged from over $900 to a bargain basement price of just under $300 for a Reynolds 531 framed model! (I think that was due to poor pics and bad timing) A fellow (known as "lightweightking") that infrequently posts on the Schwinn Forum has been helping the owner out with sale. He made this post recently:
----- Cincinnati is an interesting story. Ed Brendamore of Brendamore's Sporting goods, purchased some thirty odd Clubmans/Tourers from Schwinn from 1940-1955. They were custom orders for the Cincinnati Cycling Club. Harry Ludwig was the first to purchase a Clubman in 1940 (no serial listed). These bikes were ordered just as frames, some seem to be badged, Superior and New Worlds as well of course, as Continentals. The bikes were assembled by my grandfather(Fred Todd) either in Lexington or Covington, Ky depending on time line. Basically they used whatever the customer wanted or whatever was deemed best. The grandson (Teddy Brendamore), is the one that auctioned of the two last Clubmans with my help. One was tracked down at a restaurant auction the other from the store's old warehouse, which is being converted to,(what else), condos. Just a friendly heads up, two more look to be coming down the pike. One is a Superior the other a New World. There is also a very interesting Schwinn Tourer which has 50s components but I have never seen nor heard of such a thing. I'm looking through orders, but there really isn't any insight into these bikes other than seven were ordered. The frame has braze ons for cable routing and the Sturmey idler wheel. Ashtabula type, bottom bracket, that was converted to continental English sizing, fitted with early cotterless T.A. Cranks. Strange, but neat, nonetheless. When I get pictures I need someone to send them to, I haven't been able to download to this forum in the past. Also a bit of a footnote is that some of these frames were ordered in Reynolds 531 tubing and could be built up to weigh a pound less than the Paramounts. All the ones thus far, to me seem to be a bit heavy by todays standards. The few Paramount Tourists I've been able to get my hands on were lighter due to the use of butted tubing (Reynolds 531) instead of the speced. internal sleeved Schwinn tubing.
lwk -----
lightweightking has just posted some better photos of the auction bikes and at least one that we haven't seen yet. The "HA" New World model has some cool decal work.
http://s273.photobucket.com/
These bikes all seem to be very customized for their owners. See more at this thread as well:
http://www.schwinnbike.com/
Bob Hufford
Springfield, MO