Cruiser Bicycles

WEB SITES OF INTEREST
Bicycle Chronicles
Vintage Schwinn site
Bike Icons
Vintage Bicycle site
Bicycle Museum of America
History Museum dedicated to bicycles (New Breman, Ohio)
Bunchobikes
Photo archive of a private collection of balloon tire bikes
CABE - Classic and Antique Bicycle Exchange
A fourm for old bicycle collectors
Dave's Vintage Bicycles
Photo archive of antique and vintage bicycles.
Memory Lane Classics
Catalog of old bikes and parts
Menotomy Vintage Bicycles
Databases of antique bicycles.
National Bicycle History Archive of America
Photo/data archive about balloon tire bikes
New England Muscle Bike Museum (Bloomfield, CT)
Collection of Bicycles from the 1960's and 1970's
Restore Classic Bicycles
How to videos and supplies to help restore classic bikes
Ridelow Lowrider Bikes
UK source for Cruiser/Lowrider bicycles and parts
Vintage Bicycle Club of Texas
Texas Bicycle Club dedicated to Vintage Bicycles

CRUISER BIKES
Prior to 1888 most tires were made of solid rubber, or bare metal with a simple tread. Then one day, a Veterinarian named John Boyd Dunlop wanted to make his son's tricycle ride more comfortable. He made a set of inflatable rubber tires for his son's trike by gluing the edges of rubber together to make a tube. Then he wrapped the tube around the metal tricycle wheel, and filled the tube with air using a pump made for filling soccer balls. John Boyd Dunlop's "inflatable tires" gave birth to the modern automobile tire, and grew into the company that we know today as the Dunlop tire company.

Photo from a book entitled: "Schwinn Bicycles"
written by Jay Pridmore and Jim Hurd

In the Spring of 1933 Arnold, Schwinn & Company introduced the first "balloon tire" made for bicycles. A fat 2.125" inflatable tire. Three years later, the company introduced the "Auto Cycle", the first balloon tire bicycle. The bike featured a 26" wheel with 2.125" "balloon tires", a full floating saddle, and seat post, twin headlights and speedometer.

The "Cruiser Bike" was born!

Bicycle Trader re: Calistoga Balloon Tire Museum

The Cruiser bikes of the 1930's were sturdy bikes designed for simple transportation. The development of wide "balloon tires" allowed bicycle manufacturers to make safer bikes that could negotiate the rough roads of the time. Large floating saddles provided greater comfort on bumpy terrain, and headlights allowed the bike to be used as transportation even at night. For the first time, everyone... men, women, and children, could ride a bicycle comfortably and safely. The bicycle craze was in full swing.

By the 1950's, the automobile replaced the bicycle as the standard form of transportation. The cruiser bike developed into beautiful motorcycle inspired works of art designed by manufacturers hoping to capture the imagination of young men who longed for a motorized vehicle. Typical features of the 1950 era cruiser bikes included motorcycle style tanks, large chrome headlights, electric horns, and of course, the newly inovated "balloon tires". The bikes were decorated with colorful graphics, and shiny chrome accessories.

Schwinn's Black Phantonm Bicycle 1949- 1959
Photo from Antique Bicycles by Brian Kunzog

The sturdy cruiser bike went on to become the forefather of many of today's bikes; including the modern beach cruiser, the "fat-tire" mountain bike, lowrider bicycles, stretch bicycles (aka limo bicycles), muscle bikes, chopper bicycles and a new category bicycle referred to as comfort bikes.