Schwinn was always one of the if not best bike factories in the USA. They
were very proud of their quality and fought hard to maintain a standard.
When the American bike industry stopped making or hadn't started making
parts for the more modern geared and the simpler basic bikes,
Schwinn turned to Europe first and then Japan, for components they no longer
made or couldn't source in our country.
Items, such as hubs, rims, brakes, derailleurs, etc., etc., were sourced out
and aschwinn tried to get better quality and then put their Approved label
on the components.
As our dumbing down as a society progressed so did the quality of goods
foisted on all of us.
For a while Schwinn did try, and held off buying Asian products for quite a
few years.
Weinmann brakes with no country of origin were made in Germany.
Weinmann played both Swiss and German border games with shipping and duty I
was told.
Weinmann also bought out the German Scheeren bike part company, didn't make
sew up rims for a few years and then started up again in Germany, before
Belgium rim factory came on line if remember correctly.
Back in the late '40's I had a pair of Weinmann cranks. big fat cottered
guys made in alloy.
Never used 'em wish I had them to show now.
Kinda fun to see all the early stuff that was tried but didn't make it.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
<classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>; "donald gillies" <gillies@ece.ubc.ca> Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 12:35 PM Subject: Re: [CR] What Rims for early 70's Paramount P-13???
> Hi Jerry....and everyone
>
> I keep seeing this term......'Schwinn approved'.......what is it with
> Schwinn?.......were they so fussy and particular that everything had to
> undergo strict testing to come up to their expectations and pass certain
> things so as to be 'allowed' to be fitted to Schwinn bikes!?
>
> You never see 'Trek approved' or 'Colnago approved'.................
> Just wondering.....and scratching my head.......
>
> Cheers
> Kevin Sayles
> Bridgwater Somerset UK
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerome & Elizabeth Moos" <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>; "donald gillies"
> <gillies@ece.ubc.ca>
> Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 7:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [CR] What Rims for early 70's Paramount P-13???
>
>
> Except, I don't think Weinmann ever made rims in France. AFAIK, the rims
> were made in Belgium, while brakes were made in Switzerland. So a French
> made Schwinn-approved "330" rim was quite likely just a rebaged
> Arc-en-Ciel. So maybe that might be a good choice.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA
>
> --- On Sat, 10/17/09, donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca> wrote:
>
>> From: donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca>
>> Subject: Re: [CR] What Rims for early 70's Paramount P-13???
>> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>> Cc: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net
>> Date: Saturday, October 17, 2009, 12:46 PM
>> http://images.andale.com/
>>
>> The 'Schwinn Approved' Rims have a logo very much like the
>> Weinmann
>> world-champion logo from the early 1970's. They cut
>> off the logo and
>> put 'Schwinn Approved <====*====> France' to the
>> right of the world
>> champion logo.
>>
>> If you want to use Super Champion Arc-en-Ciel (Rainbow)
>> rims, then I
>> think it's also a good choice. They weigh 330 grams,
>> just like the
>> '330' label on the Weinmann / Schwinn Approved rims.
>> I did some study
>> on some new clinchers for my 1974 P13-9 and I think Schwinn
>> shipped
>> super champion clincher rims on some other early 1970's
>> Paramounts.
>>
>> - Don Gillies
>> San Diego, CA, USA