Well, perhaps the Sheeren method, or even production was continued by Weinmann for a while.
Unknown to me at the time, my new 1971 Paramount P-13 came from the factory with some of these super-light rims. They had Weinmann labels, not too surprising given Schwinn's heavy usage of that brand during those years. Nonetheless, I didn't know what exact type or weight of these rims were since Super Champion or Fiami Reds and Yellows were more familiar to me at that time. The Weinmann rims were on my Paramount for a few months until both were fatally dented in a bumpy criterium. Afterward, I noticed one spoke had pulled far into the rim, so I did some investigative cutting and discovered the wood blocks around each spoke hole. To say I was surprised was an understatement. My guess is that Schwinn ran out of rims for Paramount road bike production, so to keep the money coming in, instead of waiting for a new shipment of proper road rims, they just grabbed some rims from the pile for the track bikes. :-( But that is the way things went in those days... When I compared these rims some years later to genuine Sheerens, they looked pretty darned similar except for the labels and weighed about the same, which is to say, not much at all! Man, those things were light, lighter than a Fiami Yellow or a Medaile d'Or, if memory serves. No wonder they failed in road usage.
Bill Bryant Santa Cruz, CA
Chuck Schmidt wrote:
> Rob Williams wrote:
> >
> > Hi Guys, just picked up a wheelset with standard Sheeren rims. Nice and light, knowing nothing about them I wondered if anyone may lend thoughts on the origin, ride, etc.
>
> I think Scheeren is German or Swiss-German. Their rims were pre WWII
> and their most famous was the wood filled version, "Weltmeister" or
> World Champion. These were _very_ light and had a series of small wood
> blocks inserted inside the hollow aluminum extrusion so that each spoke
> went through and was supported by a block. The second version was the
> "Standard"; without the wood block reinforcement and a little heavier
> aluminum extrusion.
>
> The Sheeren rims were taken over by Weinmann (Swiss) sometime after the
> 1940s (1950s?). Could have been the same factory with a name change for
> all I know?!?!? Sheeren also made an aluminum alloy stem with a girder
> cross section and aluminum alloy handlebars.
>
> Can anyone else add some more info?
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, Southern California
> (hey, it's raining... still not close to our 4 1/2 inch annual average
> in L.A.)