# December 68 Christmas Orange Krate



## highwheelerboy25 (Nov 28, 2022)

Bought this from the original owner’s sister. Rode it until he got a car and hung it up in his workshop until I bought it. The photos are before and after.


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## Tom Carroll (Nov 28, 2022)

That’s a nice One


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## schwinnguyinohio (Nov 28, 2022)

Great job on the clean up nice transformation, I like the 69 shifter.


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## highwheelerboy25 (Nov 28, 2022)

As far as I know al late 68's came with them and were probably sold as 69's.


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## Grey Ghost (Nov 28, 2022)

Very nice!

Your paint was about as cooked as mine was, not as many chips as mine had though.
Looks like you fixed it well.

A Dec 1968 with a 69 shifter and a front fender.
That’s why I only go by the SN anymore for the date of the bike. Parts really make no difference if everything is close.
Obviously a 1969 dated frame with 1971 parts is not original. But parts that are close to the timeframe of the build may be legit.

I just talked to a guy that had a Schwinn dealership in Chicago in the 60’s and 70’s.
His friend was an engineer at the Schwinn factory.

He said that he got to tour the factory many times and told me a lot about the factory and the assembly process.

At their peak, Schwinn was making over 3,000 frames per day. According to this guy, Schwinn never stored any frames. He did mention how the line might run out of the “correct” part. Instead of waiting for another part to be made/chromed the line would grab whatever parts were close to what was needed and install them on that bike.

Interesting that they had access to the 69 shifter at that time.


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## indycycling (Nov 28, 2022)

Great job on the clean up and detailing

MD is December '68 bike and built for the 69 year with the orange 69 seat, 69 shifter, and front fender which appears to be the 69 double dimple version.


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## indycycling (Nov 28, 2022)

Grey Ghost said:


> Very nice!
> 
> Your paint was about as cooked as mine was, not as many chips as mine had though.
> Looks like you fixed it well.
> ...



Sorry Ghost
This isn't a bunch of left over or mismatched parts and the parts do make a difference.

December dated bikes with few exceptions are a transition to the next model year.

In this case, the shifter, seat, and fender are all proper as this was built as a 69 model year Krate on and MD December 68 frame


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## WillWork4Parts (Nov 28, 2022)

Grey Ghost said:


> Very nice!
> 
> Your paint was about as cooked as mine was, not as many chips as mine had though.
> Looks like you fixed it well.
> ...



Yeah, I'd imagine Schwinn had a timeline that happened something like....the R&D department had a deadline for new features in September... production had til the end of the month to prototype and make the new parts...and usually by November, you'd start seeing the new parts ready for the assembly line to install...and finally advertising rolling out before Christmas to sell the bikes with all the new features. They probably had Quarterly goals like plenty of other companies and there were definitely mid year feature changes that happened. 

The MD serial number Krate would certainly have had those 3 new features. I wouldn't be surprised if the handlebars that month were a mix of 68 and 69 year stamps...even the cranks.

This would be THE perfect bike to ask if the sprocket is stamped with "PAT PENDING"!!??
I'd say originality is intact.


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## GTs58 (Nov 28, 2022)

Grey Ghost said:


> Very nice!
> 
> Your paint was about as cooked as mine was, not as many chips as mine had though.
> Looks like you fixed it well.
> ...




A December 68 stamped drop out with a December stamped serial number would without any doubt be used in building a frame in early 1969. The serial number date is the date that the number was stamped on the "part" and sometime later that part was used to build a frame. The Serial number date has nothing to do with any type of build date, frame or otherwise. Next time you look at a 1976 or later Schwinn look at and date the serial number. Then look at the date it was built that was stamped on the head badge. 1.5 months later is the average.  Another example is the MR serial numbered head tubes that were made during the strike in late 1980 and into early 1981. Possibly 999,999 MR 1980 serial numbered bikes were built all thru the year of 1981 and that included all the catalog frames that were built and sold just as frame only. There have been a couple bikes that have shown up here that had the MR serial stamped head tubes and the build date on the badge was early 1982! On my Corvette 5 speed registry all the November 27,1961 serial numbered frames were built in 1962 with the new1962 parts and new changes for 1962. Most of the untouched pieces were verified as having1962 dated cranks. The serial numbers only give you a general idea when the bike was built, period. Believe what you want, I still believe there is a Santa Claus because I've seen over a 100 in my lifetime. 😜


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## indycycling (Nov 28, 2022)

WillWork4Parts said:


> Yeah, I'd imagine Schwinn had a timeline that happened something like....the R&D department had a deadline for new features in September... production had til the end of the month to prototype and make the new parts...and usually by November, you'd start seeing the new parts ready for the assembly line to install...and finally advertising rolling out before Christmas to sell the bikes with all the new features. They probably had Quarterly goals like plenty of other companies and there were definitely mid year feature changes that happened.
> 
> The MD serial number Krate would certainly have had those 3 new features. I wouldn't be surprised if the handlebars that month were a mix of 68 and 69 year stamps...even the cranks.
> 
> ...




I've seen and own several Decemer Stingrays/Krates with some of the current year parts and some of the next year parts or predominately all of the next year parts, both are correct

This bike does have wide bars and only way to tell year would be the date stamp behind the stem - 68 and 69 are the same style bars

My understanding on Mag sprocket is Pat Pending was used 67-70


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## Grey Ghost (Nov 28, 2022)

highwheelerboy25 said:


> Bought this from the original owner’s sister. Rode it until he got a car and hung it up in his workshop until I bought it. The photos are before and after.
> 
> View attachment 1741418
> 
> ...



What did you do to your paint to make it look so good?


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## highwheelerboy25 (Nov 29, 2022)

Grey Ghost said:


> What did you do to your paint to make it look so good?



Thorough steam clean then clay bar, cleaner wax, then buff with Maguire's. Light touch up.


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## WillWork4Parts (Nov 29, 2022)

highwheelerboy25 said:


> Thorough steam clean then clay bar, cleaner wax, then buff with Maguire's. Light touch up.



Got a picture of the stamping on the sprocket by chance?


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## nick tures (Nov 29, 2022)

nice job looks good !!


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## highwheelerboy25 (Nov 29, 2022)

WillWork4Parts said:


> Got a picture of the stamping on the sprocket by chance?



I don't.  It has recently moved on to a new owner.


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## Nashman (Dec 1, 2022)

highwheelerboy25 said:


> I don't.  It has recently moved on to a new owner.



Probably sad to move it, but I'm sure it's gone to a well deserving home and will be appreciated for what it is and for the excellent effort and results of your amazing detailing. Here is my all original Nov. '72. I'm not trying to crash the thread as I think it may have reached it's course. If I have, I apologize. I just have a passion for original bikes and like to show folks examples when possible.


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## indycycling (Dec 1, 2022)

Nashman said:


> Probably sad to move it, but I'm sure it's gone to a well deserving home and will be appreciated for what it is and for the excellent effort and results of your amazing detailing. Here is my all original Nov. '72. I'm not trying to crash the thread as I think it may have reached it's course. If I have, I apologize. I just have a passion for original bikes and like to show folks examples when possible.View attachment 1742959
> 
> View attachment 1742960
> 
> ...



Stunning original there my friend! If you look me up here, I posted my restored 72 and I"m not sure it looks much different. Yours is a keeper!


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## Nashman (Dec 1, 2022)

indycycling said:


> Stunning original there my friend! If you look me up here, I posted my restored 72 and I"m not sure it looks much different. Yours is a keeper!



Thanks. Please send me the link of your's as I can't find it in your postings. I'm a fossil and am not too tech savvy.


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## indycycling (Dec 1, 2022)

Here you go - ‘72 restored


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## Nashman (Dec 1, 2022)

indycycling said:


> Here you go - ‘72 restored
> 
> View attachment 1742983
> 
> ...



Beauty!! Thanks! See this thread of some of mine if you want. 








						Let's See Those Original Krates! | Schwinn Stingrays and Other Muscle Bikes
					

Nice bikes, all.  Seems as though original paint is either pretty nice or is kind of thrashed, no in between.  Mine was pretty bad but I don’t feel quite so bad about it now.  I’ll post my Krate when it’s done. Hopefully next week.  Question:  My Krate has mostly original parts. It has a few NOS...




					thecabe.com
				



Cheers!  Bob


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## indycycling (Dec 1, 2022)

Nashman said:


> Beauty!! Thanks! See this thread of some of mine if you want.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



thanks for the link Bob, that's a great Krate thread. I added a couple pics of some of my disc Krates


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