> Does anyone know when Schwinn began using the > Hunt-Wilde or similar plastic handelbar tape? > Would this be correct for a 50's/ early 60's > Schwinn, or did it not appear until the 70's?
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry... Where were you in '62, baby? I don't know about the 1950s, but this stuff was definitely available in the early 1960s. The funny thing is that we used to remove the Hunt-Wilde vinyl tape - and replace it with TressoStar type cloth tape - because it wasn't "Euro cool". (Of course, we wouldn't have said "Euro cool" in those days.)
Then what? Fifteen years later cloth tape is passé, and the Benotto stuff appears, suddenly making vinyl handlebar tape both Euro and cool. But you couldn't tell a Cinelli owner something like "yeah, I had plastic tape like that on my '62 Schwinn" for fear of sounding like some uncouth boor from the hinterlands.
By the way, the Hunt-Wilde corporation finally went out of
business last year.
Cheers,
Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)