SpeedofLite 

georges1

Very interesting article, first time I hear of Columbus Tenax tubing, which was also unknown to me. Wonder if there have been Schwinn Parmaounts made of Reynolds 531c,let alone 753 or only SLX tubing.

RB1-luvr

Thanks for posting this!

rccardr 

Thanks for another interesting and informative article.
Tempos are close to my heart, having owned, restored, modified and enjoyed a dozen or so of them over the years, culminating in The World's Nicest Tempo (Dura Ace 10 speed, Sugino compact crank, hand-built wheels, paint by Jack Trumbull at Franklin Frames), seen here:

IMG_6844 by Doc Mertes, on Flickr

Great bikes, quick to accelerate, lovely all-day riders. Paint is thin and tends to develop surface rust around the edges of the bottom bracket lug and top tube cable guides. Original Rigida rims are soft and Atom hubs are not my favorite so I replace them right away. Of course, at this price point (even today, in the $150-250 range) you can afford to upgrade without having too much invested.

RustyJames 

Bookmarking…

Classtime 

I was much happier with my Tempo than Doug Roosa was with his and had a tough time deciding to let it go.

trainman999

Paramounts were made of 753 OS, Truetrmper OS, Carbon fiber , SLX/SPX, SL/SP, Vitus amd Ishiwata were an option in the early 80's but have never seen one, Reynolds 531, Eccles and Pollack in the 50's, also 853 and titanimun in the late 90's

mhespenheide 

Tenax is similar to Cromor in that it starts out as a flat sheet, is rolled and welded into a tube, and then drawn out to smooth out the weld.

uncle uncle

I worked in a Schwinn shop, back in the late 80's... I think everyone there wanted the project of building Schwinn bicycles in America again to work. I think Schwinn did somewhat miss out on an opportunity with the Tempo model though. Obviously, at least to me, with it's price point components, relaxed angles, and flashy two color paint, it looks like it was squarely aimed at the triathlon crowd. But that name, Tempo... it just didn't have the same ring as "Ironman", or the signature model the likes of a KHS John Howard.

plonz 

Have to agree on this. I love my ‘85 Tempo (bike) but I can’t help not having this go through my head every time I see the name.

jamesdak 

I had pretty much every 1987/1988 Schwinn Road bikes for awhile there. The Tempo was the only one that was just a frameset and never built up. Wish I had finished it and put some miles on it. Cool looking for sure!

dddd

This Tempo has the same geometry numbers as all of Schwinn's higher-end bikes from this era, including the Paramounts.

73X74-degree frame angles may not be what this era's Italian bikes had, but is what I would consider normal racing bike geometry.

Most of today's road racing bikes in the 56-58cm size range have angles of 72.5X73.5 degrees or nearly so, and are much stiffer in all directions than this Schwinn.

rccrdr is right, the wheels on many of this era's Schwinn road bikes were just plain low quality, having low-budget Weinmann or Rigida rims on Atom hubs (that ALWAYS came adjusted destructively tight from the factory).

I never rode my Tempo with the original center-ridged tires (thank goodness!).

A Trek 720 I bought in the mid-80's came with Panaracer TT Radial tires that so ruined the steering feel of the bike just as this author describes.

I bought this bike from Goodwill in heavily-weathered condition (see saddle cover photo) but it came around.

greatscott

There are a lot of Schwinn bikes that in my opinion are highly underrated, the Tempo being one of those, as was the Peloton, Super Sport, Voyageur SP and Voyageur. I think one of Schwinn's mistakes was that they offered far too many low end models, that were basically the same bike, just different names, and people found out they were not that great of a bike and weighed a ton, models like Varsity, Deluxe Varsity, Varsity sport, Suburban, Collegiate, Continental, Super Continental, Le Tour, Traveller, Superior, Sports Tourer, World Tourist; all those models were virtually the same, they should have tossed out 8 or 9 of those and stripped it down to just 2 or 3 models from that group, but they had all those low end bikes and only a couple of really good ones, and it put a sour taste in peoples mouths. The 80's were a rough time for Schwinn, but for some reason in 85 they decided to make a year of really good models, they upgraded components and frame material for virtually all of their road bikes, but the next year it was back to lower quality stuff. Strange.

I think Trek is now in this same position, and in fact they are on the decline, they have a ways to go, but it could be a death spiral for them too. They offered far too many models that are all in the same quality level like Schwinn did, and now Trek is going to have to move their top of the line bikes that were being made in Wisconsin to overseas due to financial crunch, this is the same sort of thing that happened to Schwinn. Another 20 years or so Trek could go down into the trash heap of history if they don't wake the company and their CEOs up.

Classtime 

"...Varsity, Deluxe Varsity, Varsity sport, Suburban, Collegiate, Continental, Super Continental, Le Tour, Traveller, Superior, Sports Tourer, World Tourist; all those models were virtually the same,..."

I'm not so sure about this.