Hi Jerry,
I have an early '70's Schwinn Mixte, a Le Tour II, complete original bike, w ith Weinmann calipers and Dia-Compe levers. The calipers have the extra brak e bracket that you mention.
I've always assumed that Schwinn was taking the "belt and braces" approach, making sure that the pads don't come adrift.
Safety First!
Regards,
Chris Wimpey
San Diego, California
USA
-----Original Message----- From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 1:56 pm Subject: [CR]Mixing Weinmann and Diacompe on Schwinn??
Anyone, particularly the former Schwinn dealers, seen evidence of Schwinn mi xing Weinmann and DiaCompe brake parts on the same bike? I'm coming down the hom e stretch on the 1973 Schwinn Sports Tourer rebuild, cleaning the calipers, polishing with SimiChrome, reassembling and reinstalling. I found the the b rake levers and front caliper are DiaCompe, but the rear caliper is Weinmann. Bo th calipers have identical Schwinn Approved labels, and both have a bit I've ne ver noticed before, an extra bracket over each brake shoe which would prevent th e brake pad pulling out even if one were careless enough to install the shoes wrong way round. I assume this little bit must have been unique to Schwinn,
another example of their extreme conservatism, and it's the same on the Wein mann caliper as on the DiaCompe. Both calipers look correct for 1973, so I'm incl ined to believe that they are original to the bike despite the mixing of different brands. Anyone else ever seen this?
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA