Price of a 24" Schwinn in 1981?

[umirgul]

Hi ever body, question for the old timers. Does anyone remember the price of a new 24" Schwinn in early 80's? I keep telling my kids how I worked for a whole summer to save up for what my friends and I titled the "SpeedDemon". Hey compared to the other unicycles I knew at the time it was. My first was the cheap Sears 18" (if you can ride that you can ride anything then a 20" borrowed from my sister and a Schwinn giraffe borrowed from another friend. Those were the days...

[unipilot69]

I got my first uni Christmas of 1979. It was a 20" Schwinn. It was about $75.00. I think the 24" Schwinns were $85.00 and the giraffe was $105.00. That was alot of money back then. Mom put it on layaway. These prices were in Ogden Utah.

[David_Stone]

I got my first unicycle in 1980, a Schwinn. It was $75, if I recall, and the 24" unicycle I got about 18 months later was about $85. The giraffe was about $110 or $120, I think. NYC tax was about 8% back then. I am always amazed that you can still get unicycles for about the same price.

[johnfoss]

When I bought my first unicycle in 1980, a Schwinn Giraffe, it retailed for $129. I wish I could remember the price of the "regular" Schwinns, but I ended up going straight into Miyatas and only ever rode used Schwinn 20"s and 24"s.

{Oops, he did say Sears. I edited my 18" comment out!}

BTW, Sears most likely means tricycle technology. Might have been a Troxel like the P.O.S. I originally learned on...

[Dane M]

Originally Posted by johnfoss

BTW Schwinn never made an 18". It was probably some other brand, though even then, 18" is a very odd wheel size for the US...

I think they were just saying their first was a 18" no-namer from Sears.

[umirgul]

Originally Posted by Dane M

I think they were just saying their first was a 18" no-namer from Sears.

That's right, I meant a no namer from Sears. Anyone remember those or how much they cost? Just wondering. I got it for Christmas, it was red and white and had a solid rubber tire, plastic pedals, and a white hard plastic seat that just sat in the post and had a screw to hold the seat from swiveling. Either I messed up the treads (being about 10 at the time and putting it together myself it was probably me or it came that way Either way learning to ride on a swiveling seat added to the adventure.
I road that sears Unicycle till one day I felt the tire wobbling and looked down as one spoke after another popped from the rim No wonder that 24" Schwinn SpeedDemon was so cool!
I've been telling my kids that the Schwinn 24" was $200, never thought I'd be one of those guys talking about walking to school in the snow But I probably was only earning $2 or so an hour. THanks again!

[Dane M]

Not this uni right? You said spokes breaking so I don't think so.

"Back in the day we used to have to go to school in 6 feet of snow, in sandals, with 30 pounds of books, uphill both ways, on a damn unicycle!"

[umirgul]

All this talk got me searching the web and I found it Here is the link if you are interested.http://home.comcast.net/~gnooly/bren...rswishbook.jpg
I had the $16.99 one. Funny I remember the catalog and everything. I even got the training polls which never helped me learn but did come in handy once fighting my big and older sister Can't believe it was all that cheap.

[Dane M]

Oh my god those poles are a riot! If anything that hinders your ability to learn haha. Great find. Love those old cranks.

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by umirgul

Either I messed up the treads (being about 10 at the time and putting it together myself it was probably me or it came that way Either way learning to ride on a swiveling seat added to the adventure.

Odd, as the $16.99 one shown has a bolt that goes all the way through the seatpost. However, the other two shown have the "poky" bolt that just presses against the post. In either case, though you may have contributed to the problem, mostly blame the "light engineering" of the hardware. They were built to be cheap; all other considerations were secondary.

Wow, $16.99 for something that looks almost exactly like my old Troxel! Only that block connecting two halves of the frame is different (mine doesn't have it). The seat and post were actually plusses on the design of mine. The seat was not bad (for the price), and the post was long and could go pretty high. The weak point were the bearing holder bolts; only one on each side. The bearing holders would rotate, and the tire would stop against one fork leg or the other. The bolts couldn't be made tight enough. That's the reason for the 3-year gap in my learning process.

The other two unicycles shown are a different brand. They're from Hedstrom, another source of tricycle-technology unicycles. It's hard to tell if those two brands did more harm to unicycling than good, by discouraging a whole generation of riders. I have one in my garage that's an exact match to that "deluxe" model with the poles. Except for the evil poles.

Originally Posted by umirgul

No wonder that 24" Schwinn SpeedDemon was so cool!

Yeah, because it friggin' worked! I had the same experience. While struggling with my borrowed Troxel, I got a single ride on a 24" Schwinn and went about 10x farther than I'd ever gone on the Troxel. And the air-filled tire rode like buttah!

Originally Posted by Dane M

Oh my god those poles are a riot! If anything that hinders your ability to learn haha. Great find. Love those old cranks.

The poles however enhanced your ability to get impaled. And don't love those cranks. Pedals held on by snap-rings (until they snapped), and an excessively wide Q-factor!

[JJuggle]

I can largely confirm what everyone else is saying. I got a 24" Schwinn in 1977 and paid about $75 for it then.