Schwinn Continental

The Schwinn Continental was a ten-speed road bicycle built by the Schwinn Bicycle Company of Chicago, Illinois. It belonged to the wave of European-style, multi-speed bicycles with light frames and thin tires that revived American adult interest in cycling in the mid-1960s and then fed the fitness craze and the second bicycle boom of the 1970s. The Continental offered ten speeds to suit a range of riding conditions, and its name hints at the European origins of the design. Schwinn marketed it with the Varsity and the LeTour in a push to rival European makers such as Peugeot and Gitane, and by the early 1970s the Varsity and Continental had become leading Schwinn models, produced in large numbers until the 1980s. The Henry Ford museum holds a 1969 example, marked Schwinn Continental on the down tube and fitted with Schwinn Puff high-pressure road racer tires, which it received as a gift from Schwinn.