Model year

[CARuggs]

If a frame serial number designates that the bike frame was manufactured in October of 1962, does that mean that the bike is a 1962 model or could the frame have been used in a 1963 model?


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[Bicycle808]

Slow-selling frames definitely sat around in warehouses before being built into complete bikes and sold. You can sometimes look at decals and build spec for clues as to when the bike actually hit the showroom, but manufacturers were known to switch details in the middle of a model year-- they still do to this day, in fact. Plus, with old bikes, it's always possible that someone switched out hubs or cranks with a "correct" unit, but the date won't match.

Most reliable method for dating a bike, for manufacturers where serial # data exists, is to look at the code stamped on the frame on the day it was made. If you dig really deep, you can find out interesting info about possibilities with how/when the frame was originally sold, but generally speaking, go with the serial.

 

[CCR]

On Schwinn stuff. It's not uncommon to find bikes as early as Sept that will have other parts stamped with the next years digits on them. Kind of like cars in a way, next years stuff is already here. Im sure most companies wanted to have their "new" bikes in stores before Christmas.

 

[Bicycle808]

Ha.... on Schwinn stuff, you'll find that they sold Sidewinder frames made in 1980 as '82s.... and in 1979, Schwinn had some leftover Super Sport f/b frames sitting around their warehouses, so they built'm up and re-labeled them as "Sport Limited" completes. These were the fillet-brazed 4130 Supersport frames with the American BB shell, but Schwinn ran an adaptor and a 3 piece, from the factory, which is weird. These were all red bikes, apparently. But, that'd be a case of frames built in/before 1974 being sold as 1979s, under a different name than they'd originally been manufactured for.

So, yeah, the serial will tell you how old the frame is, but it won't necessarily tell you the model year it sold as. But, for the more popular bikes and the older bikes, it'll most likely be really close.