My college bike was a cross between a scrapped Continental frame and two speed Traveler components. A tough bike that could take any abuse - what those Chicago Schwinns were the very best at.
In the words of bluesman Howlin' Wolf :
Some folk built like this, some folk built like that
But the way I'm built, you shouldn't call me fat
Because I'm built for comfort, I ain't built for speed
But I got everything all the good girls need
After working through high school at a shop that carried a number of French, British and Japanese lines as well as Schwinn, my family moved in '74 and I began working at a high volume Schwinn-only dealer through my college years. All the people there rode Schwinns, mostly Super Sports, Paramounts for a couple. It was like a parallel universe - everybody laughed at my Fuji Finest as Japanese crap. By the end of that first summer most all had moved to LeTours and World Voyagers, except the Paramount owners. To top it off, one guy started coming to work in a Honda Civic, right in the Car Capital of America. The bubble had burst.