Bikes of Yesterday: 1963 Schwinn Fleet Cruiser Bike

Much of my time was spent at my grandparents though and I would come up and spend a good week at a time. Fabulous and functional, the front and rear fenders add that vintage flair while helping to protect you – and your clothes – from splashes and dirt while you ride. A bike trailer attaches to a bike via a hitch coupler on the bike’s rear axle. If you can confidently answer all of these questions, you’re ready to start narrowing down your brand and color options, and choosing your favorite accessories. But if you’re unsure about any of your answers, click here to jump down to our How to Choose a Beach Cruiser Guide at the bottom.

Big difference between us and Schwinn, number one is the price point. By 1972, a new wave of lightweight derailleur-equipped bicycles led a wave of new consumer interest in recreational bicycling, resulting in the bike boom. Derailleur-equipped sport bikes or ten speeds inspired by European racing bicycles soon dominated the adult market.

But that’s the entry level because we’re focused on value, and we wanna build the best bike we can for as low as possible. And we’ve determined that that price of about 229, 199 is the best we can do from the quality we wanna stand behind, to provide the value back to the customer. If you’re more of a price-oriented shopper, I would definitely say go with Schwinn, it’s a great option. So I have nothing bad to say about it, I would say $150 range if you’re okay with that two and a half to three and a half star, Schwinn cruisers are a great option. By the late 70s, Schwinn reintroduced heavyweights, but this time with a blend of BMX parts.

Even though the idea of the beach cruiser is to take it easy, there’s nothing wrong with speeding up. Pedal-assist e-bikes can do wonders for your downtime by letting you get to the beach faster, and often without breaking a sweat. Most e-cruisers are class 1, which means they stop helping you pedal once you reach 20 mph, but some go as high as 28 mph (class 3).

These features are designed to get you to your destination faster and more efficiently, but like beach cruisers, city bikes perform best on paved streets and sidewalks. We took our single speed Chatham and 7-speed Chatham Plus all the way from Texas to Destin, Florida to test these cruisers in a true beach environment. Besides getting lots of compliments from fellow beach-goers on their vibrant colors, we loved how smooth and easy these bikes performed on the paved trails along the way to Seaside. Close-up of the Schwinn derailleur for riders who prefer Cruiser 5-speed versatility. The classic knobby tire, white walled look of this model is what Cruisers are all about.Schwinn Cruisers offer three wheel sizes.

Beach cruiser bikes epitomize the saying that the journey is the destination. “A cruiser bike is for when comfort, not speed, is the goal,” says Jeff Shyman, founder and owner of Confederacy of Cruisers, a New Orleans bike tour company. A rack for use with a schwinn dealers child bike seat must have a high weight capacity – enough to safely hold the combined weight of the seat and your child. We use an Axiom Transit rack with our child bike seat on our Priority bikes. Every bike on this list has mounts for a rack, but… a HUGE BUT… just because a bike comes with a rack doesn’t mean that the rack is safe to use with a child bike seat. It also doesn’t mean that the bike’s frame shape will work with a child bike seat.

He also helped with the launch of WSJ’s Buy Side commerce vertical, and has covered the music and podcast industries for Mass Appeal, Genius, Vulture, Leafly, Input, and The A.V. Club. Equally passionate about leisure as he is his penmanship, Kevin dedicates his spare time to graphic novels, birding, making cold brew, and taking long, meandering walks. The Rover 9 comes in two sizes (medium for 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-9 riders, large for 5-foot-10 and taller), two colors (brushed alloy and matte black), and one frame (there’s no step-through model here).