CF4L

I have a shwinn which I think is of late 80's vintage. I have dont a little research and have not been able to find any info on serial numbers past the 1970's. Is there a site documenting more modern serial numbers?

Mine starts with '7F' if that tells you anthing.

Thanks for the help!

rhenning

I do not think any of this information exists. Possibly at a Schwinn dealer from the 1980s but I have a great deal of that the shop liturature and none of it means anything. As a guess I would say the 7F means June of 1987. You would have better luck looking up the build dates of the components originally on the bike. The vintage Trek site has good dating information on component dating. Roger

well biked

Is there a small four digit date code stamped on the headbadge? If so, the first three digits represent the numerical day of the year, the last digit represents the last number in the year. Example: 1527 would indicate the bike was assembled at the factory on the 152nd day of 1987. If it does turn out to be an '87, Schwinns were made in a number of places at that time: USA (Schwinn plant in Greenville, Miss.), Taiwan (Giant), China (China Bicycle), and probably still in Japan, too (most likely Panasonic). A country of origin sticker would be the best indicator for which country it was made-

John E

It depends on the manufacturing locale and the model. My made-in-Greenville MS Project KOM-10 mountain bike's serial number begins F8, denoting June 1988 manufacture, i.e., the same serial number date coding system Schwinn had used back in the early 1960s. 7Fxxxx sounds to me like a Japanese (e.g. Panasonic, which made many of Schwinn's imported lightweights in the late 1970s and 1980s) serial number.

well biked

It's all very confusing, for sure, regarding the Mississippi-built Schwinn serial numbers. I've got two Schwinns from the Mississippi plant, both serial numbers start with "S" then the month code, then the year (ex. SF4 for an '84 built in June). At one point it seemed that so many Greenville Schwinns had serials starting with "S" that Bob Hufford contacted Richard Schwinn to ask if the "S" in these cases was the designation for Greenville-built bikes. There are obviously inconsistencies, but still, the response from Mr. Schwinn didn't make a lot of sense when compared to what we were finding in our discussions here. At one point it was thought the "S" was for le tours only, but there were other models discussed that seemed to have been made in Greenville and had the S-- format as well-

John E

Hmm ... Well, you have my one data point (signature), for what it's worth.

Joeydurrant0

sngnb05a18041

T-Mar

Semi-educated guess would be 2005.

Hummer

+1
@Joeydurrant0
The first digits 05 are the year of frame manufacture, 2005. The next letter "A" is for the month, January.

CNRed

Just bought a Schwinn Cruiser 5, It was built in Taiwan, still has the "Built in Taiwan for Schwinn of Chicago" printed on the seat tube. I was hoping to figure out the month and year it was built but the serial number does not conform with anything I have read so far.
The serial number Y6201157 is stamped on the left rear wheel dropout.
Anyone have any information to share?

retlaw53 

I have a Schwinn Sprint made in Taiwan. Reviewing catalogs and comparing specifications with what's on the bike, I've narrowed down to 1985-1987. The serial number is GE718320 on the left side dropout. The head badge has 3 digits, 507, not 4 digits. So far I have found nothing online that makes any sense.

My theory (more like a wild guess) is G is for Taiwan, E is for May and 7 is for 1987. The head badge would be 5=May, 0=1st day of the month and 7=1987.

Hummer

I know this is old but I just saw it. The serial number is from Giant of Taiwan. The first digit is the year of frame manufacture, 6 = 1986. THe headbadge should also have a Schwinn date code stamped on.

Hummer

Hello retlaw53,
the serial number:
G is for Giant of Taiwan.
E is for a time period during the year when the frame was manufactured. People speculate on what that time period is. "E" is relatively early in the year.
7 is the year of frame manufacture, 7 = 1987.

The headbadge date code:
The first digit of the date code is always 0, 1,2, or 3. So "5" is not the first digit.
The first digit of the date code is missing or unreadable. I speculate that is 0 or 1 based on the serial number time period. This wold be day 50 or day 150. But the first digit still could be 2 or 3.
The last digit is the year, 7 = 1987.

CNRed

Hummer, Thanks for the reply and the info. Unfortunately, the head badge was gone when I bought the bike. But year of the frame is helpful. Thanks a lot.

albrt 

I imagine Schwinn's Asian frames would mostly follow the conventions of T-Mar's Asian frame list, right?

retlaw53 

Thanks! My guess wasn't to far off. I will look at the head badge again to verify the numbers.

Hummer

I do not know if T-Mar has Schwinn's Asian frames correct.

I know that Giant changed its serial number format in 1986. During the change over there were some short lived formats.

The Giant made Schwinn Cruiser model starts with the letter "Y". Based upon the serial number data that I have collected, this model was made by Giant from 1985 to 1987.