Schwinn Catalog Scans Tom Findley has been a bike enthusiast and denizen of the web since before the turn of the century. Over the years he developed and excellent collection of Schwinn catalogs, which with contributions from other collectors, he carefully scan and published on his site. The Earliest Paramount Serial Numbers. The very first Paramounts seemed to have had serial numbers starting with “A” followed by two or three digits. This seems to have been a system started by Emil Wastyn. We found a very early Paramount – claimed to be a 1938-9 vintage – with serial number A545. The Schwinn serial numbers that date the bike to the fall of 1954 or 1956, but I believe the Serial numbers for 54 and the 56 were located on the Left Rear Dropout - not located on the bottom bracket of the pedal crank housing. Apr 12, 2017 Dating these bikes is usually the first step toward proper appraisal of a vintage Schwinn machine. Find the serial number. Upon production, all Schwinns had a serial number stamped in one of three places on the frame. The first possible location is on the underside of the bottom bracket. The model year of a Schwinn bike produced in 1948 or later can be determined by locating the bike's serial number and comparing it to a serial number and date chart. Serial number information from before 1948 was lost in a factory fire and is extremely sparse.
All bikes1all have unique serial numbers.
Finding a bicycle serial number
Most bicycles have their serial number engraved beneath their bottom bracket, but sometimes serial numbers are found in other places. Here are some examples of where and what to look for:
The bottom bracket (where serial numbers are typically located) is circled.
A serial number on the underside of a bottom bracket.
Another serial number beneath the bottom bracket, aligned parallel to the frame.
Rad Power bikes have their serial number on the head tube. This is on the front of the bike.
Some Schwinn bicycles also have the unique identifying number (their serial number) on the head tube.
A serial number located on a rear dropout. Some BMX bikes and a few Schwinn bicycles place the serial on the rear dropout. On older Schwinns there are numbers stamped on both the drive side and non-drive side rear dropouts; the one on the non-drive side dropout is the serial number.
Some bikes have multiple serial numbers.2When adding a bike to the Index, it's best to enter all the groups of numbers and letters separated by spaces.
Hopefully you can find the serial number on the bicycle you're looking at - email contact@bikeindex.org if you're having trouble.
Searching serials on Bike Index
Finding bicycles by serial number on Bike Index is a critical part of our functionality. When searching for a serial number, use our serial search bar - it's the second bar on our search form.
How To Identify Schwinn Serial Numbers
We've done a few things to make it more likely that you'll find the bike you're looking for.
- Certain numbers and letters are difficult or impossible to distinguish between (e.g. 0 and O, S and 5). We treat all these numbers the same way - a search for
005LLLwill match a bike with the serialOOS111. - We split bike serials up by spaces and store each separately. If you see multiple numbers on a bicycle - such as in the photo of the Look bike above - try searching for just one of the numbers at a time. Searching for either
M4106I9CA1or200910427-2Awill find the bike. - We do close serial matching - bikes with serial numbers that are close to the serial you entered are shown below the matching results under the heading 'Serial Numbers Close to...' - given a search of a serial number with a couple numbers/letters that are different or missing.
- We do not currently do partial serial searches. If you search for
1234, you will only find bikes with serial numbers of1234and serials close to that - not a bike with serial number of12345689.
Schwinn Serial Number Lookup
- Okay, fine, so maybe there are a few bikes without serial numbers, but this is rare and typical only on hand made bikes or really old bicycles.↩
- In this picture 200910427-2A is a manufacturer number and not a serial number. However, to make bikes as easy as possible to find, feel free to enter all numbers you encounter.↩