Here's an "81 I picked up a couple of weeks ago, in nice shape and appears to be original except for the Wald fenders. The serial starts with "MR", for December 1980, which is interesting because the strike at the factory (if memory serves) was from October 1980 to February 1981, so Schwinn was able to keep some kind of production going even during the strike. On the other hand, it was going pretty slow, because the head badge number is 1521, which I calculate to be June 1, 1981. The Atom drum rear brake has been dropped in favor of a Weinmann Type 1080 caliper, and the Person's seat introduced for 1980 is gone as well, but it still has the forged fork and the Positron derailleur. The seat and calipers aren't "Schwinn Approved", ("Weinmann", "Dia-Compe" and "Mesinger"), but the hubs are. It's still a handsome bike, even if it was built by scabs! I wonder how many of these strike bikes are out there?
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