All you Schweads should be Schwumping for Schwoy. Here begins a Schwinn Schwectacular that will schwoften even the schwardest Scheurophile. This is Stevie J’s (aka: Dirsircolon, BeaterRezQ) 1972 Schwinn World Traveler.

Hello all at the OTSG and fellow riders/collectors! This entry was an overlooked piece of trash that was deemed useless by one man–but became my treasure when I got my grubby little hands on it. I think I paid ten dollars for it. It then sat in a shed a few more years before I did anything with it.  I love my bikes and in my stable are a few Schwinn’s…but this one was a first for Schwinn. Built in 1971 for model year 1972,the first out-sourced Schwinn’s made by Panasonic/World of Japan.  I like to think of this bike as the first nail in Schwinn’s coffin.(slow to the bmx explosion and failure to enter the mountain bike craze early-sealed their fate)  With the introduction of the World Traveler and the World Voyager, American consumers were able to see the fine quality of Japanese bikes. Panasonic made ’em to Schwinn’s spec’s but added their own attention to detail. In my humble opinion–Panasonic makes some of the prettiest bikes that I have ever seen.  I have flirted with the notion of powder coating this frame, yes it has a removable head badge (oh those were the days!) , but for now it remains near to original minus the upright touring bars and an old Mesinger seat of similar vintage. Almost forty years old and solid as a-ahh Schwinn. ( or is it Panasonic?)
Beater RezQ