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RailRider wrote:

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Wow! 1965!

Two items I see there that are noteworthy to history of our bikes.

1. The forged steel goose neck stem! Its Wald in 1965 but as we all know its a Schwinn neck, did Schwinn buy those from Wald?
2. The Pogo seat Post, never showed on a Schwinn until 1968 right?

Cool stuff!

The Pogo seat post was introduced by the Bill Matthews Co. in 1965, ads in the '65 history page at Bike Rod and Kustom. The 879 handlebars are Walds original wide high rise bars. Good familiar stuff, thanks for posting.

John B.

RailRider wrote:

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John this is the stem I was referring to. It looks a lot like a Schwinn stem, not the handle bars. I was wondering if Wald copied it from Schwinn, or ??? Maybe they made them for Schwinn early on?

Ron, yes it does look like the ones that Schwinn used. Many different companies bought components from Wald. Schwinn probably paid a bit more for a better quality finish to the surface. They got most of their components from somewhere, and Wald is as good a bet as any. Another one of those things, "Schwinn made bikes" primarily meant "Schwinn assembled". Its another one of those old myths that every component in the Schwinn catalogs was made by Schwinn, most would have been "made for Schwinn". Many people think the Bill Matthews accessory line was made by Schwinn for example. I think Schwinn wanted to be perceived as making everything "in house" but this is just not the case. Schwinn would have had a big say into the quality and material specs, but it didn't all have to be "in house" produced.

John B.

This would be an interesting question to ask at the S forums. What components on Schwinn bikes were actually made by Schwinn, Frames yes, Rims? Good question. Probably everything other than the frame, fork and rims was farmed out.

Seats - Persons and probably Mesinger
Handlebars - Wald
Stems - Wald?
cranks - Ashtabula bow socket probably
brakes - Mattatuck, Bendix
Tires - Goodyear? U.S. Rubber?
Rims - not sure could be in house
Forks - Probably in house?
Fenders?

Other than the Schwinn forum what keeps todays Schwinn collectors interested in the present Schwinn company, I don't see the new Schwinn corporation offering to host a classic Schwinn convention or anything? I personally think the Schwinn forums existance has always been precarious, could be the first thing to go in the event of corporate downsizing. Sad to think of all that information and history potentially lost.

John B.

I think a lot of the Schwinn guys will want to know this info too, I think your right that many would not like to discuss the fact that Schwinn shared component suppliers with many other bike companies. You had a good core group of American suppliers whose parts wound up on a variety of different brands.

Brain