# Schwinn 1977 Superior  Lime



## schwinnbikebobb (Oct 20, 2019)

Just finished this up.  This color pop's especially with the white tape and tires.  I went with a Brooks, could not find out what the original  catalog description "racing style, top quality" was.   This has a July 73 serial number. Maybe Metacortex or rennfaron could post again about the Sports Tourer/Superior frame connection.  Glad to add this one to the collection!


----------



## GTs58 (Oct 20, 2019)

Blows me away how clean that is! And Lime is thee color in my book.


----------



## Roger Henning (Oct 20, 2019)

Superiors were made of left over Sports Tourer frames Schwinn had warehoused.  The bike boom era was gone and Schwinn was trying to get rid of / liquid date over produced frames from the early 1970s.  Roger


----------



## schwinnbikebobb (Oct 20, 2019)

GT:    Yes it is pretty clean.  And it is a looker for sure!!    

So when Schwinn warehoused these frames they were already painted?


----------



## GTs58 (Oct 20, 2019)

schwinnbikebobb said:


> GT:    Yes it is pretty clean.  And it is a looker for sure!!
> 
> So when Schwinn warehoused these frames they were already painted?




I slightly remember the talk about these frames. Don't know if it was asked, but since Schwinn stamped the serial on the bikes component prior to a frame build, could this be the situation with these and they had a mess of the dropouts made and stamped and never did the build or stock piled these frames? Scott probably has the answer for that.


----------



## Eric Amlie (Oct 21, 2019)

I tend to doubt that they were painted prior to warehousing.
The down tube cable guides of the Sports Tourer were removed for the down tube shifters of the Superior.
I think that would make a mess of the paint in that area.


----------



## Sven (Oct 21, 2019)

Very sharp looking. The lime and white make it really pop


----------



## junkman 59 (Oct 21, 2019)

You forgot about the Sports Tourer frames had kickstand   Superiors bikes were removed


----------



## CURTIS L LINDGREN (Oct 21, 2019)

Very Very Respectable !      Bet That looks good in BRIGHT Sunlight !     Well............................it'll look good no matter where it is .       Beautiful !      :eek:


----------



## Tim s (Oct 22, 2019)

Nice looking bike! Tim


----------



## juvela (Oct 23, 2019)

-----

Thanks very much for posting this beauty - wonderful job!  

Dating note -

the cycle's NERVAR Star chainset is of the "Mk.II" or second generation type.  A change was made at the factory in 1975.   It first appeared in the U.S. on 1976 model year bicycles.  Also, IIRC, 1976 was the first model year for the relaunched Superior model which had been out of production for a number of years.

@Metacortex has written that Schwinn, at this era, stamped serials into head tubes years in advance and so they cannot be relied upon for reliable dating.

Shall look forward to reading his observations on the bicycle...

-----


----------



## Metacortex (Oct 27, 2019)

Roger Henning said:


> Superiors were made of left over Sports Tourer frames Schwinn had warehoused.  The bike boom era was gone and Schwinn was trying to get rid of / liquid date over produced frames from the early 1970s.  Roger




I don't believe Schwinn re-worked Sports Tourer frames into Superior frames. The truth is more interesting. That myth stems from the fact that Schwinn stamped the serial number into the head tube before it was welded or brazed to the frame. These pre-stamped tubes were binned and selected at random when building bikes, which in the case of the fillet-brazed bikes resulted in new frames being built with headtubes stamped as many as 6-years earlier. That's why you can find 1978 Superiors (with frames built/brazed in '78) having serial numbers as early as 1972. Schwinn didn't have a bunch of frames sitting around as much as they had the parts to build frames, including pre-stamped headtubes.

Here is the link where I first posted about this: https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/schwinn-serial-number-stamping.86093/

The pre-stamping of serials on headtubes also explains how some bikes had two serial numbers (dropout and headtube, during the conversion between the two) as well as why some had upside down serial number stamps.


----------



## Tim s (Nov 26, 2019)

Tim s said:


> Nice looking bike! Tim



Here is my SUPERIOR.


----------



## schwinnbikebobb (Nov 26, 2019)

VERY nice Tim.   These are good looking bikes!       Do you think that is the original seat?   Kinda looks like the Matex that was on Sprints.


----------



## Tim s (Nov 29, 2019)

schwinnbikebobb said:


> VERY nice Tim.   These are good looking bikes!       Do you think that is the original seat?   Kinda looks like the Matex that was on Sprints.



I am not sure about the seat Bob. Your bike looks so good with the white walls and bar tape. Tim


----------



## juvela (Nov 30, 2019)

-----

Interesting to note that the Schwinn approved Huret front mech is late enough to be CPSC compliant.

-----


----------

