albrt 

My latest project is a fillet brazed Schwinn.




Preliminary inventory of components suggests a 1973-ish Super Sport, but the head badge seems to suggest a 1977 date. That would make it a Superior, but I don't think the late Superiors had Ashtabula cranks. The serial number is missing.

Late Superiors did come in black, but the only thing about the paint job that looks original to me is the brick red primer. I will be interested to hear if anyone has a different opinion about the paint job. My initial hypothesis is that somebody was trying to pass off a 1973 Super Sport as a 1977 Superior, but I'm not sure the difference in resale price would be worth the effort.

Thoughts from the local Schwinn experts? I probably won't start breaking this down for a couple weeks.

albrt 

Sorry, I meant this to go in the regular C&V forum. I will report myself and request a move.

dmark 

76-78 Superior also has downtube shifters.

dddd

Those particular stem levers pre-date the 1974 model year I believe. I'm seeing a shorter, rounder "knob" on the end of each lever.

I've seen Schwinn serial numbers (the frame itself) which could be interpreted in two ways, many years apart.

sd5782 

FD doesn’t match either, although I can’t tell what you have on there. RD does match, but my Huret rears have all been replaced. Color doesn’t match any 73 as you pointed out. I would also guess the Superior didn’t have a claw mount for the RD as yours and a 73 would have. I may have a few odds and ends from the ones I’ve worked on. Yours looks like a project. That looks like the 24” ctt size as cataloged by Schwinn?

dmark 

Perhaps it is a warranty replacement frame that was built up? Also never saw a black Super Sport. (the seat tube as best can tell in photo looks to be correct diameter; ie not as narrow as a Continental/Varsity)

Velo Mule

Interesting. The head badge has a four digit code. I'm don't know the year that Schwinn started putting date codes on their head badges, however, I believe it was well after 1973. Does any one here know?

Edit: I looked it up and it seem that Schwinn started putting the date code on the head badge in 1976. Can someone confirm that this is correct?

What are the numbers on the date code @albrt ? It look like 0077, which would most likely be January, 1977.

Schweinhund

It's also got screw instead of rivets holding the head badge on.
Where on the frame is the serial located and what is the actual serial number?
Head tube, bottom bracket, or left rear drop out?

Velo Mule

Good point @Schweinhund . My 1972 Super Sport has screw for the head badge, however, the screws and the headbadge are different. Although I think albrt's head badge looks good and the screws may be original, I think we need to see details of other Super Sports of the years in question to figure this out. I also don't ever remember seeing a black Super Sport.

On the other hand, these fillet brazed bikes are good riders. You could just build it up and enjoy and not fret too much about the year of manufacture.

Schreck83 

There should be chrome on the fork tips and crown. Your fork looks like it has a thin "chrome" cap rather than a chromed crown. 73 SuperSport fork was painted tubular (Continental also)
Headbadge may not be original since it is screwed-on.
SN for a 1973 SuperSport should be at the front base of the head tube and could pre-date the year of assembly by many years.

albrt 

It is definitely a fillet brazed frame based on the seatpost, the pointed seat stays, and being about half the weight of electroforged frames. I have a bunch of Schwinn Varsiburbinentals at the co-op and I can confirm this one weighs much less.

The front derailleur is Huret, not too different from what Schwinn was using but not Schwinn branded. I think Schwinn would have called the frame 24 inch, but it actually seems a little taller when I stand over it.

There is no serial number. I scraped some of the paint off the head tube where the serial number would be for a 70s bike, and it looks like it got filed off. I can see faint traces that might be from the serial number but I can't report anything definite until I get it fully cleaned up.

The head badge number is 0077, but frankly the headbadge looks much newer and cleaner than anything else on the bike. Consistent with my theory that somebody tried to pass it off as a Superior at a later date.

I am kind of inclined to have it sandblasted and rebuild it as a bare metal frame if the brazing is nice. There is one like that for sale in a local bike shop and it is super cool. The only reason I didn't buy that one is because it's a smaller size. I'm in Phoenix, so clear coat or even a little tung oil should be enough to keep the rust at bay. So I am not thinking of a 100% authentic rebuild, but leaning into the heritage.

sd5782 

I have 3 from 1973 with a couple having some replacement parts from 1972.



1973 badge


Sorry for the poor pic I just took in my garage. This is from a 73. Serial number is at the front bottom of the head tube. I had another 73 out for 23 miles just a few days ago. I am always amazed at how well it compares with my slightly more modern bikes. The chrome fork crown cap looks right for a 73, and the 72 and 73s did not have chrome socks on the forks.

Velo Mule

1972 Schwinn Super Sport Headbadge

Velo Mule

In 1977 Schwinn had a fillet brazed Superior and it was available in black. The thing is, that it most likely had an English threaded bottom bracket because the Superior featured a three piece crankset. This bike in the original post clearly has an American style bottom bracket and one piece crank like a '70's Super Sport.

I am thinking that @dmark might have the right idea. It could be a warrantied frame that was built in early 1977 and the shop moved all the parts to the new frame. We did this a couple of times at the Schwinn dealership that I worked in. If I remember correctly, if the frame had failed, Schwinn provided a new frame, however, it did not include a new fork unless the fork was warrantied too.

This would mean that the original frame failed and the owner brought the bike to a dealer. The dealer contacted the Schwinn representative. They make the determination if the frame is meets the free warranty replacement criteria. A frame would be ordered and since the Super Sport was no longer in production at that time, they had to make a Super Sport using the Superior frame with an American bottom bracket, so that all the parts could be moved to the new frame. And of course black was a production color in 1977. Water slide Schwinn decals were available after the bike's production run ended.

Could this be the story?

dmark 

There is a Schwinn post somewhere around here I remember that mentioned unused SS or Sport Tourer frames that were used up in the last days in Chicago as un-catalogged bikes say 1979 to 81?
BTW my 73 and 74 Super Sports have the serial # on the headtube for whatever that is worth.

cudak888 

I'm not sure anyone has broached the possibility of a repaint yet, which seems to be the case given the downtube and seattube panels, neither of which would have been on a factory bike. As such, I'd consider the headbadge 100% suspect too, as the paint job was obviously done well enough that the badge was pulled and re-installed; not masked around. As such, the badge could be from anything.

How about the frame date code (as opposed to the headbadge)? That's usually a pretty solid way to date it.

I don't think this paint job or badge swap is recent enough for anyone to have even considered it an attempt to make a Super Sport look like a Superior. It's probably just personalization from back in the day when nobody would have looked askance at someone repainting a Super Sport into a non-factory color.

-Kurt

albrt 

I am pretty sure the paint is not factory. The scheme is not normal for a Schwinn of this time period, it flakes off much too easily, and the silver panels have hand-painted goldish outlines. I agree the headbadge was installed after the repaint and is probably not original to this frame.

Is there another date code on the frame besides the serial number? Serial number is currently unreadable.

cudak888 

It doesn't have one at the bottom of the headtube?

-Kurt

albrt 

No, as noted in post 11 the serial number appears to have been filed off. I think there are traces but I can't read any of it. I will take another look with a magnifying glass when it is cleaned up.

I wasn't going to start taking it apart yet, but curiosity got the better of me. Inside of the bottom bracket is Kool Lemon, so that settles the repaint issue.

albrt 

Crank says "SA 4 73."

Schwinn branded front hub says 73.

Lemon was an available color in 1973.

I think I'm gonna go with 1973 until proven otherwise.

juvela

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if you wish you can employ etching solution to bring up filed serial to legibility

this is the technique employed by law enforcement when they recover stolen items with defaced serials

if you run it through local law enforcement there may be one or more "hits" on it (reports of being stolen)


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albrt 

I will try to read the serial number once it is cleaned up. Phoenix law enforcement is not super interested in checking bike serial numbers, though. I have tried it before and I never successfully got anybody to check one, not even for a valuable modern bike.

Also, in this instance I think the cops would need to find a 1970s database to run it through. The repaint is pretty old, and the bike seems to have been unused for at least a couple decades.

dddd

It might be fun to re-connect the bike with it's owner who had it stolen back in 1979!

Could be the makings of a viral YouTube video.

albrt 

Or reconnect with the shady character who stole it and repainted it! I wonder if I could get any DNA from the grease in the bottom bracket?

Velo Mule

I have a Schwinn Heavy Duti that belonged to a paper boy that loaded it up with newspapers. It had double baskets in the back a bag on top of the double baskets and a Wald giant basket in front. The kick stand mount eventually separated from the frame. The Schwinn representative ok'd a new frame for the paper boy and when the rep' got the old frame I asked him for it. He said "no" like he should have. But I kept asking and I must have worn him down. Bike mechanics didn't make enough to support their habit sometimes. He let me have the frame, but ground off the serial numbers so that later in life, I couldn't claim it again for a warrantied frame. This was back in the days before computer databases. I thought that Schwinn had a department on Koster Ave. where they keep all the bicycle serial numbers. And within this department there was a special room where they kept all the warrantied bicycle serial numbers attended by a diligent librarian, so that you would not only get caught with claiming the same frame twice, but you would then be outed by Schwinn and no longer be allowed to enter any of their dealerships.

By the way, it was the rep's job to be sure that the warrantied frame was destroyed and tossed into the dumpster.

As a result of all of this, I have a Schwinn Heavy Duti frame with a Greenfield kickstand and no serial number. It is not stolen, but it is not totally legit either.