The numbers are equally spaced, same size and depth into the frame, but the "LV" letters are a little wonky and not too well aligned up with the numerals. The S/N is totally out there - S/N LV800163, with clearly hand punched letters "LV" followed by neat, machine stamped numbers, all on the bottom of the crank housing. One is a girl's cruiser S/N Y871103507 on the bottom of the crank housing neat and clean and looks machine stamped with a Julian date of 2498 (day 249 of 1988?) stamped on the frame head badge (silver letters on white - registered trademark symbol on the head badge). Maybe one of you can interpret them for me? My wife and I bought two Schwinn Cruisers during my junior year in college at Ponnock's Cycles on Arch Street in Philly (PA). I have two Schwinn serial numbers that don't seem to jive with any of the online information I have read. I wish we could get these Schwinn Reporters scanned and online! At the time they projected 44% of the lineup would be 10-speed for 1971. This number gradually increased over the years to about 10% in 1969, and then instantly doubled to 20% in 1970. From memory it showed that in 1960 10-speed models were only about 5% of production. Schwinn's total production from 1960 through 1970. I wish I still had the article and could make a copy of it, but I only had a chance to read it one time.Īnother interesting article called 1970 "the year of the derailleur", and reported the exact number of 10-speed bikes vs. In any case I thought this was very interesting. Taken at face value this would suggest that the head tubes were stamped after the frame was complete. It also stated that when two stamps would exist on the same bike they would be different, and that in that case the head tube number would take precedence and be the true serial number for the frame. The way it was worded seemed to imply that the complete frames with dropout stamps already existed, and they were then simply re-stamped on the head tube. It stated that this was because when the change was made, all frames in existing inventory were simply re-stamped with new numbers on the head tube. The article indicated that the move was done to make it easier to read the serial number, and that the change was made primarily for law enforcement because at the time bike theft was becoming a major problem.Īnyway, the article stated that during the transition there would be bikes with numbers in both places, exactly as seen on the tandem in question here. I just read an article in a 1970 Schwinn Reporter (I don't remember what specific issue) that described the frame serial number move from the dropout to the head tube. This oddity verifies that the serial numbers were stamped on the components prior to any frame building. If that is true, there were 15983 serial numbers stamped on a headtube component before this bikes stamping. I would assume the 0 indicates that the previous dropout numbers were reused but have the additional 0 preceding the numbers. Looks like Schwinn stamped serial numbers on at least 32700 dropout components before they started stamping the numbers on the headtubes. What's funny is the dropout number is a larger number but it doesn't have the 0 preceeding the numbers. I relocated this eBay listing with a 1970 Tandem that is wearing two serial numbers, one on the left rear dropout and the other in the new location on the headtube. Schwinn made another serial number location change in 1970 but it was not at the beginning of the model year. Hopefully all that lost information can be reposted in this thread. I personally believe that sometime in the 50’s or possibly earlier, Schwinn actually stamped the serial number on the bikes component prior to the frame build and there is evidence that backs this up. During the early years a serial number was hand stamped possibly right after a frame was built but in the later years the thousands of SN’s stamped in one day was done by a benched mounted automatic stamping machine. Over the years Schwinn’s production practices and methods changed when their volume increased and when new tools were introduced. Although when using the date code associated to the serial number along with any date coded parts a bike may have, it will give you a rough idea of when the bike was actually built. The serial number was stamped on a frame for specific purpose, and it was not intended nor does it tell you the day, month and in some cases the year a particular bike was built. Since there are many misconceptions about the Schwinn serial numbers I want to devote this thread to clearing up all the mysteries, myths, rumors and falsehoods that lead one into believing that a date coded Schwinn serial number is the build date of a bike.
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