Originally Posted by
Doug Fattic
In the 10 speed group in the 60's and 70's, The Super Sports were the next step down from the top of the line Paramounts. Below the Super Sport came the much more common Continental and the most plentiful of all was the Varsity (their most basic model). Some years their were other models like the Superior and Sierra but the 4 I mentioned were the consistent sport models they sold through the years that were made in Chicago.
While they don't look all that different, the Super Sport with its chrome molly fillet brazed frame is in reality a big step up from its Variety and Continental brothers. They were brazed by hand instead of being spit out of a machine. They are also a lot rarer and much more collectable. The Varsitys weighed about 40 pounds and the Super Sports 31. The one piece Ashtabula steel cranks were part of the reason they were so much heavier than European 10 speeds.
Let's not forget the "butting" of the Super Sport?
source
And the later fillet brazed Schwinns were, from what I've read, only three main tubes cro-mo?
I had a '74 Sports Tourer when I was in Pgh and I was confident bombing down hills, and didn't labour too much getting up them either. It was a fun ride. Now I've a '72 Super Sport in Opaque (Lime) Green. It is entirely disassembled at the moment, so indisposed for photographs, but not for weighing.
Frame - 3320 g (7 lbs. 5 oz.) (BB cups still in place)
Forks - 866 g (1 lb 14.6 oz)
Ashtabula Crank and Rings and Pant Leg Chain Guard and Bolts - 1658 g (3 lbs. 10.5 oz)
For reference, my '74 Ron Cooper (Racing)
Frame - 2019 g (4 lbs 7.2 oz) (Lower race of headset still in place, but it's aluminum)
Forks - 711 g (1 lb 9.1 oz)
Random Campagnolo BB and Crank picked up off my floor - 933 g (2 lbs 0.9 oz)
The '72 SS I sort of had to buy because though in "well used" condition, it was entirely original, and two miles away, and the headset in the posted picture looked about the same size as another one I'd been considering twenty miles away if the Southport Ferry had been running... It turned out to be a 24" frame which is did not look to be, because of the low bottom bracket. The SS I was really after turned out to be 24" as well, and was fabricated in February of 1964. The ones from the early years are allegedly entirely cro-mo, and don't have the brazed on kickstand but do have the forged dropouts and chromed fork and bar and stem inscribed "Sport Super Sport." Once I take it apart, I'll weigh for comparison. It feels lighter, and though I've only ridden the '64 Sport Super Sport twenty miles or more home, it was fun, save for the too low stuck seatpost, (now free), the replacement crap saddle, and the inability to shift the front at all and the rear covering only three cogs.
The geometry of the '64 Sport Super Sport and the '72 Super Sport is identical. The frames and forkses (sp) match up perfectly. It will be interesting to see what the weight difference might be? I will document it, of course, and may even start a thread here, or over on CR to preserve the numbers for posterity?
Congratulations, OP, on making your SS your own! And thank you for sharing your approach!
(As it isn't a real post without pictures, here's the seller's FB Marketplace photo of the Schwinn they had for sale, which I recognized as an early '60's SSS.
I've only decided to change out the saddle and seat pillar, shifters and derailers (because they are broken and would suck anyway on a good day), for the time being.)