How to tell a year on a schwinn bike ?

Question

How to tell a year on a schwinn bike ?

Answer 1

It depends on what year your bike is.  If it's pre-70's, then you will have to decode the serial number.  If it is after that time period, then you simply have to look at the head badge.  (The Schwinn logo badge on the front of the bike, just below the handlebars.)  

If it is pre-head badge numbers, then you have to locate an online site for tracking Schwinn serial numbers.  Many of these can be found by simply searching "Schwinn date codes" in any search engine.  

If it is post badge numbers, then you simply need to take a flashlight and shine it on the headbadge.  Stamped somewhere on that badge will be a 4 digit number.  For instance, I am working on a Schwinn Frontier GSX with the head badge code 2347.  This number tells me that the bike was built on the 234th day of a year ending in 7.  Since I know the original owner of the bike, and know that it was bought new in the nineties, then I know that this bike was built on the 234th day of 1997, or Wednesday, October 1st, 1997.  Whether or not the bike is a 1997 model or a 1998 model will have to be determined by looking at pictures of each model year to determine which I have.  Reference "A" is a website featuring scans of all schwinn catalogs from '91-'00.  Other sites for other years are available, and "image search" available through the major search engines can also be helpful.  

Furthermore, if you do not know the decade that the bike might be from, then you can use the head badge and decal design to determine the decade, as these things were frequently redesigned.  Reference "B" is the wiki page for Schwinn.  At the bottom, you will find jpgs of the various head badges.

Reference "C" is another page outlining everything you just read, and served as the principal source of my research.

Furthermore, you could just take the easy way out and call Schwinn at 1.800.SCHWINN and give them your serial number and ask them what you have, but what's the fun in that?  Hope that helps