GTs58
In reply to your comments regarding the image of Schwinn head tubing SN stamping and head badge stamping.
You say this Chicago Schwinn was made on Monday, March 15, 1982. By the head badge stamping 0742 the cycle was completed Monday March 1982 74th day of 1982 along many other cycles on that one day.
My reply is that serial number KSnnnnnn was stamped on the head tube in October 1981. The completion date was not. At the start of the frame construction the head tube was pressed, then SN stamped and waited for the frame to be made from it and completed, painted then fitted up that took until March 82, a process that took 5 to 6 months of the SN stamping on the head tube being shuffled around the Chicago factory. The entire cycle was not built in one day from start to finish. It is logical the KS along with the sequential number is stamped at one time given the machinery involved and not best to be left until the cycle is completed as part of the Schwinn production ion the day.
The SN is stamped into the frame steerer head, not onto a screw fixed head badge that can be easily removed or swapped around.
Then the head tube was used in building a frame
from October 1981.
The Schwinn serial number date has absolutely nothing to do with the final completion date ie the completion date, frame or otherwise. It indicates the inception date of the frame.
“the serial number on those catalogue frames are not Schwinn's serial numbers” This is the debate ongoing.
The Schwinn Owners operating & Maintenance Manual gives a description of what the Schwinn SN is and it starts with a month and year letters followed by 6 numbers as page attached ie GTnnnnnn. The final inspection date is shown but it is definitely not the SN.
Giants serial numbers on Schwinn bikes are not Schwinn serial numbers.
I do not know this nor do I need to.
Those BS3xxxxx serials have absolutely nothing to do with Schwinn's serial numbering. The Schwinn Owners operating & Maintenance Manual gives a description of what the SN is and it starts with a month and year 6 numbers as page attached ie GTnnnnnn. The final inspection date is shown but it is not the SN.
OK what do you consider to be the Serial Number and whose format is it.
Schwinn could have completed 4000 items for sale a day in 1981 all receiving the same completion date as stamped on the head tube badge. Maybe they are not all cycles. The SN for a cycle has to be individual thus the GTnnnnnn is, not the 0742 as place on 4000 items completed on that 74th day of 1982.
That statement made by Jim Hurd in the "Schwinn book" about importing frames in 81 could have very well been a big error on his part.
That is yet to be confirmed but it is one item that cannot be confirmed as Jim Hurd Has passed on.
Richard Schwinn gave a speech on Schwinn's marketing, and he stated that Schwinn did not build any bikes during WWII. That was a big brain fart on his part because Schwinn built thousands of bikes during war time!!!
I agree that Schwinn and of course many other cycle makers did make thousands of cycles during WWII as a military contract and not necessarily for public use, only military use as happened in other countries, from 1943 to 1946 the Schwinn serial numbers did not increase as they did before and after WWII. The USA military fund was used to cover the cost to a contractor and had importance over public need to have a child’s bike for Christmas. The numbers made and what was made by Schwinn could be a secret contract.
Quote: Therefore the SN BS3nnnnn is likely to be the Schwinn Chicago format not an Japanese one. Certainly not Bridgestone nor Panasonic by what is said in their description of their SN.
This is what this debate is about.
