Back in my youth, millions of teenaged boys and young men had Raquel Welch pinup posters on their walls. A couple of years later, they (or their younger brothers) hung images of Farrah Fawcett in their dorms.
Around the time FF replaced RW as the pinup queen, I started to work in a bike shop. On my first day there, I was greeted by this:
Now, before I (however unwittingly!) turn this into a low-grade version of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, I'll bring this post back to the topic of bicycles--namely, the one she's, er, riding.
It's a Schwinn Super Sport. You can look at it, without distractions, here:
OK, so it's not the same bike. But it's the same model. The bike, I mean. And it's in a shade of red I like a lot. I think Schwinn called it "bright Burgundy" or something like that.
In any event, the model in both photos is...not as well known as FF or RW. Oh, the bike--In both photos, it's the Schwinn Super Sport.
Back when I bought my Continental, it was the next model up. It cost, if I recall correctly, about 25 dollars more. That may not sound like much, but its price was about 25 percent higher than that of the Continental. That was a fair-sized chunk of change for most people, let alone a 14-year-old, back then.
Like most people, I couldn't see a huge difference. However, the Super Sport had a couple of features that may well have made it a more performance-oriented bike. Those same features also helped to make the SS one of the strangest bikes ever made.
The frame was filet-brazed from Chrome-Molybdenum steel, while the Continental was flash-welded from regular steel tubing. The Cr-Mo, of course, made for a lighter bike that would have been more responsive. So did the alloy rims (the Continental's were steel).
So far, so good. But if you look closely at the photo of the burgundy Super Sport, you will see a couple of incongruous features.
The most stunningly inappropriate part is the forged steel one-piece (a.k.a. Ashtabula) cranks. With the steel chainrings and chainguard, it may have weighed more than the wheels.
What's even stranger is that those cranks are paired with aluminum alloy "rat trap" pedals made in France by Atom. I always thought they were rather pretty, but when I rode a pair (on another bike), I learned that they were very fragile.
Plus, as I recall, the Super Sports had the same welded-on steel kickstands as the Continental and all lower models.
I think that trying to make a budget "performance" bike is laudable. But I always had the feeling the designers of the "Super Sport" weren't certain as to whether they were making that, or a two-wheeled tank for kids to pedal off curbs.
Around the time FF replaced RW as the pinup queen, I started to work in a bike shop. On my first day there, I was greeted by this:
Now, before I (however unwittingly!) turn this into a low-grade version of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, I'll bring this post back to the topic of bicycles--namely, the one she's, er, riding.
It's a Schwinn Super Sport. You can look at it, without distractions, here:
In any event, the model in both photos is...not as well known as FF or RW. Oh, the bike--In both photos, it's the Schwinn Super Sport.
Back when I bought my Continental, it was the next model up. It cost, if I recall correctly, about 25 dollars more. That may not sound like much, but its price was about 25 percent higher than that of the Continental. That was a fair-sized chunk of change for most people, let alone a 14-year-old, back then.
Like most people, I couldn't see a huge difference. However, the Super Sport had a couple of features that may well have made it a more performance-oriented bike. Those same features also helped to make the SS one of the strangest bikes ever made.
The frame was filet-brazed from Chrome-Molybdenum steel, while the Continental was flash-welded from regular steel tubing. The Cr-Mo, of course, made for a lighter bike that would have been more responsive. So did the alloy rims (the Continental's were steel).
So far, so good. But if you look closely at the photo of the burgundy Super Sport, you will see a couple of incongruous features.
The most stunningly inappropriate part is the forged steel one-piece (a.k.a. Ashtabula) cranks. With the steel chainrings and chainguard, it may have weighed more than the wheels.
What's even stranger is that those cranks are paired with aluminum alloy "rat trap" pedals made in France by Atom. I always thought they were rather pretty, but when I rode a pair (on another bike), I learned that they were very fragile.
Plus, as I recall, the Super Sports had the same welded-on steel kickstands as the Continental and all lower models.
I think that trying to make a budget "performance" bike is laudable. But I always had the feeling the designers of the "Super Sport" weren't certain as to whether they were making that, or a two-wheeled tank for kids to pedal off curbs.