SkinGriz

Did the Speedsters have more tire clearance than the Varsity?

Thank you.

pastorbobnlnh 

For the most part, Varsities uses 27 X 1 1/4 tires that are 630mm in diameter (there are exceptions, but these models are not normally stumbled upon).

Speedsters on the other hand uses 26 x 1 1/4, 26 x 1 3/8 (S-6 or Schwinn size "6"), that are 597mm in diameter.

Generally speaking, the tire clearance on both bikes is generous. While Speedsters always came with fenders, it was an option on Varsities. Which has more can be a difficult question to answer. What are you planning to do?

Vintage Schwinn

I have not observed any differences among the "lightweight" category SPEEDSTER / Racer 597mm variant and the mid sixties to early eighties Chicago VARSITY.
(***there is the 1961 era MIDDLEWEIGHT cantilever frame SPEEDSTER which is Totally Different from the early sixties Traveler,--mid sixties to 1971 Racer (597mm) variants which were pretty much exactly the same bicycle except with a different DECAL on the chainguard. The 1971 Racer and the 1972 SPEEDSTER are exactly the same bikes except the '71 Racer probably featured painted fenders while the '72 Speedster featured the chrome fenders from the Collegiate. My guess is that Schwinn marketing realized that that late era large block print chainguard decal of "SPEEDSTER" was one of its coolest looking designs and right for the times. Racer was retired after 1971 I believe because by that time in the very early seventies, bicycle riders of all ages generally regarded "Racer" to denote something with "racing handlebars, a tiny uncomfortable seat, with ten speeds, no fenders and rat trap pedals. I think that is why SPEEDSTER as a name continued and Racer did not but that is just my hunch and I have no facts to support that claim.

The Ashtabula forged steel blade front forks are Not Any Wider among any of the electroforged Chicago factory "lightweights" of that era.

1966 and up front forks will require the 21.1mm STEM diameter size, while the 1965 and earlier require the common everybody else's American industry standard of that time of 22.2mm stem diameter. As the industry leader, as part of their commitment to build the best and most durable bicycles on the planet, and in the interest of improving product safety, SCHWINN, in 1966 model year, adopted a stronger, thicker walled tube portion of the part that resides within the headtube. It became the industry's strongest and probably its safest and most unbreakable at that time during that era, but realistically and likely truthfully, how many bicycle riders were crazy nuts with perhaps almost near suicidal tendencies as at that point in time, ABC's Wide World Of Sports had not yet made Evel Knievel a household word. Perhaps SCHWINN had a time machine that self destructed after the initial first use. Perhaps that first use, of them going to look at New Years Day slightly more than a year into the future. They then view the spectacular Caesars Palace jump crash, over-and-over on instant replay. Certainly, the time machine must have self destructed after that one time use, just like all of the portable tape recorders that Mr. Phelps of the IMF received from the US Govt agency (presumably the CIA if not the white house itself), because SCHWINN obviously did not have the crystal ball vision of what would occur beyond 1973.

I have not observed any noteable differences in Chicago SCHWINN electroforged frame differences between the variants of specific year clusters (meaning the same general era).
Sure there are slight differences in frames between the forties and very early sixties that do in some ways probably differ very slightly from the mid-sixties thru early eighties Chicago electroforged frames. I know about as much as Sgt Schultz as to which years, specifically that those changes occurred and what slight changes occurred without resorting back to researching Schwinn literature, publications and catalogs. The ladies step thru models experienced probably the most change between the forties and 1966. The diamond frame had largely been made near perfect as to the most stable & comfortable ride characteristics by the fifties.

You should be able to do anything with a "SPEEDSTER" frame that you can do with a "VARSITY" frame.
The most significant difference, I think is that the seventies era "SPEEDSTER" frame though available in the same typical sizes as the "VARSITY" with the 24 INCH frame being the LARGEST frame size offered on the "SPEEDSTER. ***** The 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 "VARSITY" was available in huge 25 INCH and gigantic 26 INCH frame sizes in addition to the normal ordinary (18), (20), (22), (24) mens-DIAMOND frame and of course the (17), (19), (21) Womens-STEP THROUGH.
There aren't a great number of the 25 INCH & 26 INCH electroforged VARSITY/CONTINENTAL frames around compared to the amount of 24 INCH & 22 INCH frames, but their numbers are still significant compared to European & Japanese bikes of that era and the European/Japanese/American bikes of the eighties, nineties and beyond because SCHWINN sold a tremendous number of bikes during that era, and though the 25 INCH & 26 INCH frames accounted for a small fraction of sales.........a small fraction of almost a gazillion is still a sizeable amount................You get the picture-------------there are still a good number of those huge & gigantic frames out there in the wild, some 45 to 50 years later, that still are worthwhile for anybody that is six foot five or taller that would like to build a bicycle that can accommodate such a tall rider.
The bicycle industry, as the 21st century approached and beyond as the decades progressed, have seemed to forget that yes, there are folks out there that are NBA sized in height and leg length, however the industry trend has been to forget about the so called "oddball midgets" and "paul bunyan, NBA type giants" and require them to have something built in "bespoke" fashion, tailored to accommodate them, as at least 88% of the core cyclist customers are not among the oddballs & giants segment and it does not seem to make practical sense from a pure business standpoint to offer something "off the rack" that would fit the "oddballs" & "giants" crowd of cyclists.