Is this thing really a schwinn?

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i dont know...it doesnt seem very schwinn to me.
heres some pictures:
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IMG_4061.jpg

Its got a schwinn chicago badge, with tons of japanese parts...the wheels and tires are schwinn too...
 
yup, looks like a schwinn lightweight. suburban maybe ? i believe schwinn was using japanese parts around the 80s. as well as having panasonic make some of their bikes for them.
 
Dates to Dec. 80 :wink: Later & PEACE!!!
 
TheFlyingDingo said:
Slick Rick said:
Dates to Dec. 80 :wink: Later & PEACE!!!
i thought 80 wasnt chicago?

If im not mistaken the badge says chicago

Thanks alot for your help so far guys!!!

I think 80 was the last year, or very close to it, I had an 80's 18" girls stingray with a chicago badge.
 
"Schwinn shifted most of its production to Taiwanese company, Giant, and closed the Chicago factory entirely in 1982. Nearly a century of American manufacturing came to a close."

I found this quote on re-Cycle.com
 
Hand Fillet brazed Schwinn. Very cool frames. Notice how the seat tube is larger than most, the frames were made of Chromoly.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/schwinn-braze.html


Edit....Interesting on the date though as they stopped fillet brazed frames in 1978. I wonder what model it may be.

1978 production of the fillet-brazed Superior stopped, which marked the end of production for a fine Schwinn frameset whose basic design had been in service since 1938. Forty-one years. Today fillet brazing is a fabrication method best suited for custom and specialty bicycles, yet from 1938 to 1978 you could walk into any Schwinn shop and buy this kind of bike off the rack. Unless we invent a fillet-brazing machine, it may never happen again.
 
The top tube and down tube are fillet brazed to the head tube on this 1988 Schwinn High Sierra. I don't know why the reat of the bike frame isn't done that way. According to MOMBAT, none of the other years are like that.
IMG_0201.jpg
 
Those fillets look more like tig welds like the frame has been repaired by someone. Not your standard Schwinn weld. I guess they could have done done things differently once they were made overseas.
 
Schwinn actually had lightweights being made over seas as early 69 or 70 if I'm not mistaken. There was also the Greenville Mississippi facility that manufactured light weights as well. So theres a good chance that it may have been made somewhere other than Chicago.But as previously stated, a well made quality frame nontheless!And the decal stating Chicago would not have been out of line as their corporate offices remained in Chicago till the bitter end! :wink:
 

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