Originally Posted by
CliffordK
Hmmm, looking at some old Schwinn and Huffy ads, the tan sidewalls may have been indicative of 27x1 1/4 tires, or 700c tires. Not necessarily quality.
I'm seeing 20 & 26" tires with blackwalls, and balloon tires with whitewalls.
Imitating the sidewalls from "racing bikes" doesn't make a Schwinn Varsity a racing bike.
700c weren't common OR standard in the US until the late 1970's.
During the bike boom
fad, bicycles were marketed as "10 Speed Racing Bikes" even though most buyers in the US had no idea about bike racing in Europe!
A decade or so earlier the hot ticket for a "light weight" bike was a "3 Speed English Racer"....
When a bike came into our shop with black wall tires we usually referred the customer to another shop. Not for snobbish reasons but for practical business sense.
Low priced bikes with poor quality components took twice as long to work on and many times servicing them cost more than they were worth!
For liability reasons, when a bike left our shop it had to be running safely!
Now you know ... the rest of the story!
verktyg
Chas.