Ride, Wrench, Swap, Race
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Northern California
Posts: 9,193
Bikes: Cheltenham-Pedersen racer, Boulder F/S Paris-Roubaix, Varsity racer, '52 Christophe, '62 Continental, '92 Merckx, '75 Limongi, '76 Presto, '72 Gitane SC, '71 Schwinn SS, etc.
Mentioned: 132 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1565 Post(s)
A surprising number of bikes from that era were patterned after the highly successful Schwinn Varsity.
BDS bikes from Sweden even looked like the Varsity with 1" frame tubing, slack frame angles and one-piece cranks!
Vista from Japan made a similar Varsity clone, and there were many other lower-end Japanese bikes made having identical slack geometry but also having lugged or faux-lugged or semi-lugged frames.
Low-end bikes from European countries approached the Schwinn's 70-degree frame angles but usually just a bit steeper. They were competing for the same buyers in the US "boom" market.
Huffies and Murrays also had identical frame geometry and tubing diameter as the Varsity, but usually having tubular forks like the Schwinn Continental since they didn't want to spend the money for a forged fork.
The pictured bike appears to meld the seat tube angle of the Varsity with the substance of the UO8.