john hawrylak

Recieved the 88 Schwinn Voyageur & am overhauling it.

Does anyone know, with a high degree of cetainity, who built the frame, Panasonic, Giant, or Other?? Consensus is bike was from Japan, although the "Schwinn Approved" label is no where to be found. It is all over my 1975 Voyageur II. Catalog scans from Waterford web site do not help for 1986 through 1989 models. The parts are mostly Japan (stem, bars, headset, pedals, Shimano drive train,), Wheels are French (Maillard hubs, Wobler rims) & tubing is Italain (Columbus Tenax) withe a Tange 7H fork.

Does anyone have the definitive history of the Voyageur SP and Voyageur series??

tugrul

Does it have a serial number stamped on the lower head lug? Usually found on Schwinnasonics.

wrk101

All my Schwinnasonics are Tange tubing of one kind or another. Scooper will know for sure. Great bike regardless.

Scooper

I wish I did know, Bill.

The '88 Voyageur was made with Columbus Tenax (production grade SL and SP), and I suspect it was made in Greenville MS, but am not sure. "No Hands" says the Voyageurs were built in Greenville at one point, but it doesn't mention which model years.

1988 Schwinn Road Bike specs

AZORCH

I only have this information second-hand, but the guy I bought my '88 Voyageur from told me he was certain it was built in Japan. It is definitely built with Columbus Tenax tubing, which I would find curious for a Japanese-built Schwinn... I would have presumed Tange if it really had been.

john hawrylak

Yes, 0128, which implies the bike was assemblied on January 12, 1988. Matches the model year of 1988.
BB stamped with K747827 on left side of BB and 845 in the center of BB. The "K7" implies frame was made October 1987 (skip "I" when counting the month).
There is NO stamping on the rear drop-outs.

The Schwinn Serial Number & Date Code site
https://www.re-cycle.com/History/Schw...nB_Serial.aspx
,for 1971 to 1992, does not state for sure,
but has Japanese Models with a BB code of
A7XXXXX where A is the month (Jan), 7 is the year, and XXXXX are 5 more digits.
and American ones with a format of
AAXXXXX where the 2 letters are month and year.

john hawrylak

The Schwinn catalogs, via the link on the Waterford site, shows Columbus tubing was used from 1984 thru 1989 on either the Voyaguer SP model (SP/SL tubing) or the Voyaguer model (Tenax tubing). Teh catalog inidcates the 1988 fork was Tange Cr-Mo and when I removed the fork it was stamped "TANGE 7H" on the steerer tube.

So it seems, Columbus tubing was used for multiple years ont eh top end touring bike Schwiin sold.

ilikebikes

I was told from a guy that "claimed" to live next door to a guy that "claims" to be a decendent of the Schwinn family that they were made in Greenville MS. (the guy has an 88 Voyageur)

tugrul

That is probably the one on the head badge. This is what I meant by lower head lug:



Or another example from another Prologue.

wrk101

About 99% of the information I get from sellers is wrong. I really discount it. Its not that people lie, its just a combination memory fade and lack of knowledge. All the Tenax bikes I have seen from that era were Greenville, MS built.

jjmadaj

I bought an 85 voyageur today, tenax tubes, sticker says made in japan for schwinn. It has the sn on the lower headlug, like the photo above, 5D10446. Panasonic?

balindamood

I believe the Voyagers were Japanese made of Tenax tubing. I do not recall if it was Panasonic (they did try some other ones occasionally), but up til '88 it is a reasonable assumption. Giant only did Tig'ed frames...mountain bikes for the most part, but at the end, I recall one ore two tig'ed road bikes coming in. The Passage and Le Tour Luxe (85/86 models below the Voyager) were made in Greenville. Schwinn had their mid-level bikes made in Greeneville, but their top end stuff still came from Japan (sans Paramount until the end), even with the Tenax.

I did not sell Schwinns until '88, so my memory has faded a bit since.

Old Fat Guy

I had a Panasonic PT-5000 that had the serial number in the same format/location as above. My 1984 Voyageur SP does not have a serial number on the head tube, though.

ilikebikes

My 1989 (so I was told by forum members) Voyageur doesn't have the lower headtube lug serial # either. ;0)

Old Fat Guy

Is yours a Schwinn? Schwinn's were Voyageurs:

ilikebikes

Point taken. LOL! ;0)

Old Fat Guy

Quick edit

Scooper

I really wish somebody who worked for Schwinn in the eighties and early nineties would compile a list of which models were made where over the years. The records have to be somewhere.

Regarding the 1988 Voyageur country of origin, I found this flickr page featuring a 1989 Voyageur. The owner states that Richard Schwinn (who managed the Greenville plant in the late eighties until it closed in 1991) said the '89 was built in Greenville.

Looking at the 1989 Schwinn Parts & Accessories catalog, the part numbers for the '88 and '89 Voyageur frames and forks are the same. The only color available in '88 and '89 was Emerald Green.

1988 and 1989 Voyageur 19" frame - p/n 29 058
1988 and 1989 Voyageur 21" frame - p/n 29 059
1988 and 1989 Voyageur 23" frame - p/n 29 060
1988 and 1989 Voyageur 25" frame - p/n 29 061

I suppose it's possible the 1988 Voyageur could have been sourced from Japan and the '89 from Greenville, but I don't think Schwinn would have used the same part number. Of course, the owner of the '89 Voyageur on Flickr could be mistaken about Richard saying the '89s were built in Greenville. It sure would be nice to get some definitive documentation, but until that happens we're left to play detective.

cb400bill

Did Giant build anything in Japan? I thought they were a Taiwan/China company.

balindamood

Giant was only Tiawan until the late '90's.

The Greenville plant opened in the mid-80's for a variety of reasons depending upon a person's perspective. I recall that there were rumors of production/quality problems, and at least some of the models moved back and forth form year to year (89-92). Moreover, the yen crash of the mid-late 80's made it very difficult to continue to source stuff from Japan such than I think it would be reasonable to assume than Schwinn's relationship with Panasonic was nearly done due to economic reasons. As I said, Giant at the time was only doing TIG frames (I sold them too, same store, rediculous).

ilikebikes

I rode my 89 a few times and quickly fell in love with it, I'd like to know where it was made but its not going to kill me if I never find out. ;0)

Scooper

Giant (Tony Lo) was a Taiwan company during the timeframe we're talking about, and Schwinn was importing Giant produced bikes as early as 1977. By 1984 Giant was supplying 500,000 bikes per year to Schwinn. In 1987, Schwinn bought a one-third interest in Shenzhen based China Bicycles (Jerome Sze) and began importing bikes from mainland China, which put a strain on Schwinn's relationship with Taiwan based Giant.

National/Panasonic in Japan continued to have a good relationship with Schwinn until the November, 1992 bankruptcy (they supplied the Schwinn Series 5 and Series 7 Paramounts until the bankruptcy).

Grim

Nope, they were in there before that and made lugged frames. My 88 WorldSport was a Giant and it was lugged. It had a sticker on the nondrive side drop that said "Made by Giant".
I have had a couple Panasonic's and a couple Panasonic built Scwhinns and the 80's models that I had always had the head tube SN number.

cycleheimer

photo from his thread...

Scooper

The 1985 Voyageur was built by National/Panasonic in Japan and used Tenax tubing, but I believe the '88 and '89 Voyageurs which also used Tenax may have been built in Greenville.