No, the Varsity and Continental were "electro-forged", but the Superior, Super Sport and Sports Tourer were fillet brazed. In Sheldon's excellent web article, he explains all that. Not all of the fillet-brazed models were produced every year, and by the mid to late 70's they were discontinued, although I think some of the names have been used by Schwinn since on entirely different bikes.
In the article, the late Sheldon speculated that one of the things that led to the discontinuation of the fillet-brazed models was that they did look a lot like the cheaper slectro-forged models, rather than the more "European" lugged frames. Remember that this was the days of the Bike Boom, when many Americans who grew up on balloon-tired crusiers were just becomming aware of quality lightweight European bikes. There were several books published at the time which touted the superiority of lugged frames. Of course, Europeans builders had long used fillet-brazing on frames of the very highest quality, but this subtlety was lost on many American buyers. So the fillet-brazed models ended up being replaced in the Schwinn lineup my lugged models, many of them made in Japan. Now some of these Japanese models, notably the World Voyageur and the Volare, were themselves very nice bikes, but the perception that their lugged frames were inherently superior to the American-made fillet-brazed models is probably not justified.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, Texas, USA
Eric Goforth <eric.goforth@gmail.com> wrote: In 1973 wouldn't this bike have been "electro-forged" instead of filet brazed?
The drop outs don't look like electro-forged ones though, was there a price point above which the frames were filet brazed?
-Eric
Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
> Thanks to several CR members for their responses, and especially to Bob Hufford for his reply and his excellent Schwinn site. I just bought this early 70's Sports Tourer:
>
> http://ebay.com/
>
>
> Yeah, I know, if I waited about 5 years, I might find one for $50 at a garage sale, but I find these fillet-brazed models intersesting, and I think maybe they are a bit rare, since they probably didn't sell that many, as they were more expensive than Continental, but weren't European enough to be "cool" in the 70's. The catalogs on Bob's site say that "Schwinn Approved" ratcheted barcons - Suntour no doubt - were an option, so I won't even have to feel guilty about changing out the stem shifters.
>
> The seller was surprised to get that much, and threw in free shipping so delivered price isn't that bad.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA
>
>
--
Eric Goforth
Durham, NC, USA