Thank you, Alan, for the really helpful post. I can add just a couple of "factoids" that might be helpful to some. In particular, Schwinn seems to have been very careful about model differentiation at the top end. The cranks and hubs of the early Superiors and the early Paramounts look very similar, but have some small, frustrating, differences.
CRANKS: conventional 9/16" pedal threading on the Paramount, but 1/2" on the Superior (at least on Larry Black's bike, which I think was a Superior, but perhaps a Continental?). HUBS: Again, the parts look very similar. But, the Paramount uses the conventional 1.370x24 sprocket threading, with what is very close to Italian locknut. The Superior I played with used different, non-interchangeable sprocket threading, but I can't remember what it was. The axles are different, too. The Paramount uses a weird system. The cones slide freely, but with very close tolerance, onto a ground axle, and are located by a pair of locknuts on each side. This was advertised as a "vacuum fit," as I recall. The axles were countersunk at the ends, and thin in the middle (not a good idea). I fess up: my own '38 P'mount has a superior axle set in front. This was a conventional system with threaded cones and a single lock nut on each side.
I would speculate that Paramount buyers paid a very stiff premium that justified these differences, and try to put my head into the late Depression period, when labor to run machine tools would have been rather inexpensive. Pure speculation.
thanks again, Alan.
harvey sachs mcLean va usa
+++++++++++++++++ Alan Weeks wrote:
The history of the early fillet-brazed Schwinns is murky at best. I don't have a New World but in researching late '40's vintage Continentals learned quite a bit about them. I found the two best sources of information to be the Schwinn Forum and Tom Findley's website.
If you go to http://www.schwinnbike.com, click on the "Heritage" tab and then sele ct the "Collectors Forum", you're there. You don't have to be a member to do a search so anyone can go in and check the archives for threads about th e New World, Superior or Continental. Of course, the Superior and Continen tal names were re-used so some of these threads are about the later models. I started a thread titled "1940's Continental" when I began my research a nd it grew to contain quite a lot of information and pictures of early Schw inn Lightweights.
Tom Findley's website, http://www.trfindley.com has a collection of early Schwinn Catalogs and pricelists which I found valuable in trying to figure out when various models were produced.
A brief history of the early fillet-brazed Schwinn Lightweights as I unders tand it is as follows: the Superior and New World were introduced in 1938, the Superior being the more exepnsive and slotting in just below the Param ount on the price and quality scale. Both featured fillet-brazed CroMo fra mes with rearward (track style) dropouts. I am unaware that there were any significant differences in quality or geometry. Components would have acc ounted for the price differential. The standard configuration was that of a typical "English" bicycle of that period with an upright seating position but a wide variey of optional equipment was available including lever oper ated drum or caliper brakes, Maes or Moustache bars, etc., etc. Both came with 26" wheels which were designated as 1.375" wide and had a bead seat di ameter of 599mm, not to be confused with post-war Schwinn wheels which were designated as 26" x 1 3/8" and had a 597mm bead seat diameter. Unlike lat er Schwinn lightweights, many of the components; hubs, brake calipers and t he like were made in house.
Following the Second World War, the Continental took over as the top of the line fillet-brazed lightweight (still 2nd to the Paramount overall). Func tionally, the Continental was pretty similar to the Superior but the subdue d colors, graphics and pin striping were replaced with flashy decals, stain less steel fenders and "flamboyant" colors. The 1954 pricelist shows the C ontinental as being discontinued that year.
The New World was produced following the war and continued to be the lower priced lightweight. The Superior still showed up on pricelists in between the New World and the Continental. Oddly, the Superior is not mentioned in any of the postwar catalogs that I've seen which leads me to speculate tha t perhaps Schwinn still had an inventory of pre-war frames on hand. The Ne w World seems to have been replaced by the electro-forged "World" model by 1950 and the Superior disappeared from the pricelists by 1953.
I have three late '40's Continentals (pictures appear in various Schwinn Fo rum threads) in varying degrees of originality. The first was quite incomp lete so I built it up Clubman style with an FW hub, 590mm rims, Bluemels, d rops and a B17, all of which were a bit more recent than the 1940's. I rid e this bike more than anything else I own. The third seems to be nearly al l original (except tires and brake pads) including fabric coated cable casi ngs but I still need to rebuild the wheels and make some other adjustments before I ride it very much. The second one is in between in terms of compl eteness and worst cosmetically. I will most likely sell it this summer.
If anyone has any additional information or literature about these early Sc hwinn lightweights, I'd love to hear about it.
Regards,
Alan Weeks
Lake Placid, NY