So I recently picked up used Schwinn simlpy because I thought it was cool. I believe its an XS model, all aluminum, and as I said just plain cool. So Im cleaning it up and changing a few things so I can take it with me to PEPs gathering next weekend. All was going great until last night. I went to put the cool new FMF Powermoto brake on it that I just bought, it aint gonna work. The problem being the distance from where the rear triangle starts, to where the brake posts are positioned is extrermely short. In order to think about using that or any other v-brake I tried, is the pads are going to have to be slid all the way to the bottom of the slot, and the rim to be jamed all the way to the front of the dropout. Causing the brake to be in just a ridiclous position. And barely touch the wheel, and this is just a trial fit, no tire, no chain. So is this frame meant for a mini v-brake, or a u-brake? I hope somebody can make sense of my description and help me out. Thanks homeys.

Sounds like those posts are for a U-Type brake.

U-Brakes on an Aluminum Schwinn frame would be way strange, though. Those FMF brakes don't have nearly as much adjustability as other V-Brakes, though. That could be part of the issue. Pictures of the setup would help us all.

Carl

the schwinns had the " epicenter " seat stays, narrower at the brake posts schwinn claimed it provided a siffer more powerful stopping power. i raced for schwinn in the mid 90's and i always ran cantilever style brakes on mine, had to use the older style cable hanger too. sort of preceeded the whole v brake movement. heres a pic of my setup back then. those early schwinns were amazing.

Starchild thats it!!!!!!! Thats my bike. So whats the brake you have on there? Can I get one? Or something like it that will work? I am dying to ride this thing, simply because others have told me the same you did, they,re freakin amazing, that and I picked it up for a song.

gr8bndini, the brakes i used were high end mountain bike cantilevers made by a company called Grafton. you could use any cantilever style brake though and a cable hanger. i will tell you my schwinn was my all time favorite ride ever. the USA made ones were incredible.

I had one too, bought in April of 1995. The Fosters only got theirs before me here in the south. I used Onza HO cantilever brakes and those were killer. Starchild is right, one of the most under-rated and overlooked midschool frames out there. Pure American made quality.

I ran regular Shimano XT v-brakes on my ENF, no issues with setup.

Thanks for the help fellas, Starchild sorry if I was coming across like a pain. The whole mid-school thing is pretty foregin to me. As I was starting to get into driving and chasing tail about that time, and I really had no idea what a canti brake was. Alex Vesa! How you doing man? Is there any kind of bike you dont have? Its interesting you say that you had an Onza brake on yours. This one did as well, but its really strange, and busted and I dont think it can be rescued. So were there US and foregin made frames? How do you tell which is which? All I know is this thing was somebodys racer, and judging by the set up whoever it was was pretty serious abot the sport, all I know is I cant wait to get it back toegether and beat the snot out of it! Thanks again for the help.

Hey man, doing well, thanks. I searched on eBay and theres none right now but a NOS set didnt sell for .99 in the completed listings. So new ones are out there if you want another set. I think the US ones are just like starchild's, with the hole going through the BB brace. Not sure when they went foreign but the seat stays brace unded up flat and all hollowed out (hard to describe), maybe those were foreign made.

no worries gr8 i was'nt even thinking that at all. i was glad i could help out. actually i thought most guys forgot about the older style cantilever brakes all together once v brakes took off in bmx. i liked the cantilever style better for that time period myself as it made the bikes a little more distinct back then as opposed to the bikes of today.

Starchild's bike looks to be a '96 XS ENF a hardcore aluminum race rig. Not sure where that model was made. The next year the model name changed to XS Pro Modified 1 and it was labeled USA made, so was the Pro Mod 2. The last USA made Schwinn complete bikes.

Starting in 1997 and running through 2001 Schwinn offered a line of USA made frame and fork setups for every style of riding. I've heard these f/f were manufactured in both Colorado and Oregon. You can ID most of these because they had no serial numbers and also didn't get the "quality" logo stamped into the rear dropouts. Some carry a special "oval" badge on the downtube near the bottom bracket. These say "Handmade in the USA" and bear the serial number.

In addition to being available via retail these frames were issued to sponsored riders, of course. Everything else in the Schwinn catalog was made in Tawain.

The list of USA made Schwinn frames:

1998
Race: Pro Modified 20", Pro Modified Cruiser
Vert/Street: TorqueFlite
Flatland: PowerFlow

1999
Race: Pro Modified
Race/Trails: Brian Foster Blue Falcon
Vert/Street: Jay Miron TorqueFlite
Street/Trails: Joey Garcia El Jeffe
Flatland: Andrew Faris 36-24-36

2000
Race: Matt Pohlkamp Pro Modified
Race/Trails: Brian Foster Blue Falcon
Vert/Street: Jay Miron Canadian Beast
Street/Trails: Joey Garcia El Jeffe
Flatland: Andrew Faris Azrael

2001
Race: Matt Pohlkamp Pro Modified
Race/Trails: Brian Foster Blue Falcon
Street/Trails: Joey Garcia El Jeffe
Flatland: Andrew Faris Azrael

2002 Bankrupt and sold to Pacific Cycle!

mine was an ENF it was USA made.

A fine example! Looks like a killer ride.

when I started ABA Bmx racing in 1998/99 at the age of 25 (lol,yea thats the first time i ever rode a BMX race track), it was aboard a Schwinn Pro Stock 1 complete I bought at the local bike shop for like $500. it was an army green one with all black-out parts and it seemed sooo fresh to me...like someone had asked me what colors i wanted on a bike & made it for me lol. mine was the first of the high-end Tiawan race completes but it was beautifully crafted and I raced it stock for most of my first year racing. i just near the end of that season had some black velocity Taipan rims laced to the hubs cuz the single-wall araya 7x copies were bending too easy for me learning to jump race track jumps and casing alot.
that bike is still around town somewhere's I know it...just gotta ask the dude i sold it to for $60 to tell me where it's at so I can restore it!
eventually I put black profiles, USA Schwinn 44T race sprocket, USA Six-Shooter stem, odyssey A-brakes in red, sun ringle sealed pedals, and a black Chris King headset on it to spruce it up a little...but I NEVER changed the colors at all cuz I loved the look!
These American-made Schwinn frame here are sooo nice! Thank you for sharing!

hey secret, those army green schwinns were great looking. i worked at a schwinn shop in the mid 90's bmx boom and we sold tons of superstock's and pro stocks's. could'nt keep them in stock, even the high end ones. schwinn was the sh@t back then. i can't wait to rebuild a replica of my original schwinn.

Holy crap, I have'nt been in here for a while, I figured this thread was dead and forgotten.So phocused, you seem a bit educated on this subject, was 96 the first year for this bike to be produced? Reason I ask is well as I said before mine looks like Starchilds, there is a serial# stamped on the inside of one of the rear dropouts, I dont know what it is off hand, and the bike is'nt any where near me right now, but I can tell you that it starts 95 then a space, and I cant remember the rest.

I ride/collect/restore mostly Schwinn freestyle bikes from this era but along the way I run into a bit of BMX info. The ENF was started in 1995 and remained mostly unchanged through 1996. Then the name changed to Pro Modified but remained the top BMX rig Schwinn offered.

The ENF was Schwinn's first real top notch bike since the 80's. The old Chicago Schwinn of the three decades went belly up and moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1994. The new ownership really put some serious time and effort into making quality products. Too bad they went belly up in '01. They left a small legacy of great bikes though.

Haven't seen a lot of information about Schwinn serial numbers of the late nineties. But, it sounds like you do have an 1995 model.

Here is a link to the 1995 models: Schwinn 1995 BMX Catalog
and the 1996 models: Schwinn 1996 BMX Catalog
Gene's BMX Schwinn catalogs: Schwinn Catalogs 1964-2009

The catalogs are hosted courtesy of Gene over at Gene's BMX. Thanks Gene!

Here's pic of my cruiser. I think it is a '97? Serial # in dropout is C96Bxxx. Bought it to ride with my kid in '98. It has Shimano DX V-brakes. It is awesome, but just accumulates dust these days. 8-(

Thats a shame, thats an awesome bike.

I had an XS ENF frame and I ran shimano LX V brakes from the same year with zero problems. I run RED DX brakes from the same time on the pro modified cruiser with zero problems and they are basically red LX's. Before I had the ENF I raced on a cr-mo XS1 with the same LX V brakes with no problems either. I worked at the bike shop as well and many kids upgraded to Tektro v brakes with no issues.