This lovely machine is a Schwinn Suburban, and not mine--Google image search delivered this nice example. But I do have one just like it in the attic, which I retrieved from my father in-law's shed, which he scored in a lawnmower trade or some other shenanigans. Mine's a lot rougher than this beauty, and it might,
might make it into the garage for a teardown, repack and polish to bring it back to its original emerald awesomeness.
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| Here's a catalog page for a later version--note the front freewheel setup. |
Old tanks like the Suburban score hipster cred these days, but I just like the fillet-brazed look of the things. They aren't actually brazed though--those tubes are joined via Schwinn's "Electro-Forge" process (
read about it here). It's extremely unsexy stuff compared to Columbus tubes, fancy lugs, and the like--Schwinn didn't even use seamless tubing, and instead rolled the tubes from flat stock. But as an example of American industry and a clever mass-production system, I appreciate it.
