# Schwinn Serial Numbers Explained



## Xlobsterman (Jun 30, 2020)

Here is a link to a document I found published by SCHWINN explaining their serial numbers in reference to dating their bikes!



			http://thirtythree.org/projects-unconverted/Lowrider%20Bicycle%20Restoration/Identifying%20Schwinn%20Frames.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1_OkdtwkIU42Tthik9UgFI3B5RNZUFRKSgonpRM4Cm0imigVEepcl66vY


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## Oilit (Jun 30, 2020)

Some good information in that! Thanks for posting!


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## GTs58 (Jun 30, 2020)

I saw that and it's full of incorrect information. The person that created that didn't have a clue and shouldn't have been rewriting Schwinn's history. Lot's a BS in there so don't believe everything you read.


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## rennfaron (Jun 30, 2020)

"Middleweights introduced in 1956" 
1955 catalog - "finest of the new middleweights" 

"cyclock" 
Cycelock


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## GTs58 (Jun 30, 2020)

Middleweights were introduced in the Summer of 1954.


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## Miq (Jun 30, 2020)

The frame construction part is really whacked.  It doesn’t seem like you can make hard rules like that when the construction techniques were changed on different frame styles at different times. Rear dropouts appeared on lightweight frames in 1940.

Also, just because the records were destroyed in 48 doesn’t mean we don't have any idea how the serial numbers were deployed before then. The fire didn’t destroy all the bikes built before 1948 or burn all their serial numbers off.  

A house fire burned all our kids birth certificates so I don’t know how old any of them are any more...Seriously?


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## Miq (Jun 30, 2020)

None of the comments here should be taken as an attack on @Xlobsterman.  I appreciate getting to see stuff like this. It’s Schwinn‘s consumer relations in 1981 fault.


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## GTs58 (Jul 1, 2020)

Miq said:


> None of the comments here should be taken as an attack on @Xlobsterman.  I appreciate getting to see stuff like this. It’s Schwinn‘s consumer relations in 1981 fault.




+ 1 on that. ^^

 I saw this file a few days ago and couldn't believe what was printed on those pages. It almost looked like a fake Schwinn bulletin written up by some Joe Blow. Someone from Schwinn calling a drop out a Fish Hook (to the front)? Really?  LMAO 

If anyone cares or wants to know when the serial numbers were moved to the head tube look at my pictures below. It sure wasn't at the end of 1971 or the beginning of 1972 as stated in that bulletin. This is a Tandem that was equipped with two sets of serial numbers when the SN's were moved.


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## Xlobsterman (Jul 1, 2020)

GTs58 said:


> I saw this file a few days ago and couldn't believe what was printed on those pages. It almost looked like a fake Schwinn bulletin written up by some Joe Blow. Someone from Schwinn calling a drop out a Fish Hook (to the front)? Really?  LMAO




YES.....REALLY........!

They were referencing the style of dropout, and if you had an open mind, you would actually see it does look like fish hook by the way it curves back around on itself!


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## GTs58 (Jul 1, 2020)

An open mind? Or the mind of an adolescent making up names.  Schwinn was one of the first to use the rear "drop out" in the US and I'll call it what it is and what it was named, not something someone thinks it looks like. If I was going to refer to it as something that it looked like using my open mind (imagination), I'd call it a clevis hook fork end. It's called a *drop out* for specific reason and it seems that many here don't have any idea what a rear drop out fork actually is or why it's called that. The rear facing "track fork" is not any type of drop out. Why is this so hard for everyone to understand, it's so damn simple! Here's a solution for the learning impaired. Lets call the forward facing rear fork end a drop out. Then we'll call the rear facing fork end a pull out. Now that's what I call some open minded thinking.


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## Xlobsterman (Jul 1, 2020)

GTs58 said:


> An open mind? Or the mind of an adolescent making up names.  Schwinn was one of the first to use the rear "drop out" in the US and I'll call it what it is and what it was named, not something someone thinks it looks like. If I was going to refer to it as something that it looked like using my open mind (imagination), I'd call it a clevis hook fork end. It's called a *drop out* for specific reason and it seems that many here don't have any idea what a rear drop out fork actually is or why it's called that. The rear facing "track fork" is not any type of drop out. Why is this so hard for everyone to understand, it's so damn simple! Here's a solution for the learning impaired. Lets call the forward facing rear fork end a drop out. Then we'll call the rear facing fork end a pull out. Now that's what I call some open minded thinking.
> View attachment 1221603
> View attachment 1221601
> 
> View attachment 1221602




DUDE............I think you need to take a nice relaxing fishing trip, and use some fish hooks to help you relax a bit...............LMFAO

Here is a pic of a Mako Shark I caught on a "Fish Hook" a few years ago now! Notice the smile on my face after a great day of fishing


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## Xlobsterman (Jul 2, 2020)

Miq said:


> None of the comments here should be taken as an attack on @Xlobsterman.  I appreciate getting to see stuff like this. It’s Schwinn‘s consumer relations in 1981 fault.




I knew when I posted this there were going to be certain individuals that would jump all over it and dispute the information in it.

And all "FISH HOOKS" aside, take the info for what it is worth, and have a great 4th of July holiday weekend............!


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## schwinnlax (Jul 2, 2020)

Well, I have no interest in getting into these squabbles, but the fact does remain that document has lots of errors.


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## Rivnut (Jul 2, 2020)

GTs58 said:


> Lets call the forward facing rear fork end a drop out. Then we'll call the rear facing fork end a pull out. Now that's what I call some open minded thinking.
> View attachment 1221603




I had always thought that it was just a rear fork.  This is a page from a 1949 Schwinn catalog.  Check out item #33


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## GTs58 (Jul 2, 2020)

Rivnut said:


> I had always thought that it was just a rear fork.  This is a page from a 1949 Schwinn catalog.  Check out item #33
> 
> View attachment 1222550




Yep, exactly. But that's not what the masses today call it. And #32, front fork. Ever hear, "My front forks are bent"?

80% of the members here should read this. No such thing as a rear facing drop out.


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## Xlobsterman (Jul 3, 2020)

It's hilarious how this message thread about Schwinn "Serial Numbers" has turned into a thread about rear fish hook style drop outs...........

Anyhow, everybody enjoy the 4th of July weekend. I have my box of fish hooks, and I am going fishing this weekend!


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## Xlobsterman (Jul 3, 2020)

schwinnlax said:


> Well, I have no interest in getting into these squabbles, but the fact does remain that document has lots of errors.





And those errors are?


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## Rivnut (Jul 3, 2020)

Xlobsterman said:


> It's hilarious how this message thread about Schwinn "Serial Numbers" has turned into a thread about rear fish hook style drop outs...........
> 
> Anyhow, everybody enjoy the 4th of July weekend. I have my box of fish hooks, and I am going fishing this weekend!
> 
> View attachment 1222609



Catch and release?


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## Xlobsterman (Jul 3, 2020)

Rivnut said:


> Catch and release?




NOPE........catch and BBQ


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