Classic & Vintage - Schwinn Sprint from when?

First off, I know that this bike is not necessarily quite vintage yet. This was the only forum I thought could help me. I recently got bitten by the road bike bug. I thought I'd get myself something very affordable to get my feet wet. I found this Schwinn Sprint at a thrift store in bad need of cleanup and tires, but mechanically everything functions well. I spent some time cleaning it up, oiling, and tuning. It has turned out to be a good starter bike for me and I'm just trying to find out a little about it. When was it made? Are there any obvious upgrades I can perform before buying a new bike? Funds are a bit tight now and I don't want to get an entry level bike. I'd just as soon ride the Schwinn than spend the cash like that. I'm gonna wait a while and buy something I'm really happy to ride. Some info would be greatly appreciated! It has a Made in China decal and it looks late 80s or early 90s to me, but I'm sure that someone knows a great deal more than me about it.

The way the brakes and shifters are set up I'd push it back to mid 80s or so for date.

Stem shifters indicate lower line bike as they were considered "safer" for a young or inexperienced rider. Ditto the brake extensions.

Upgrades? Unattach the brake extensions. If you can find some cheap enough, handlebar end shifters would clean up the front of the bike and actually be more efficient and safer. Vintage SunTour Barcons were the best and frequently on eBay. Shimano makes them currently and they'll work with older drivetrains but will probably cost as much as you paid for the bike. Aftermarket brake pads like Kool Stops or Matthausers will cheaply improve braking. Other than that I wouldn't add anything.

Should you ride it? You've answered that question already for yourself. Yes.

:beer:

One of the guys I see around town has a sprint, and it seems to be a pretty good bike. Given it has downtube shifters, but you can do things about that ;)

Don't worry about it's level yet. What I did was keep my oldschool Trek as a commuter, and am building up a little rocket of a bike for weekend riding and just having fun in general. It's sometimes chaper to buld up a ebay special than it is getting an old bike up to today's spec.

Looks like you've done a great job cleaning it up. Is there a 4 digit number stamped on the headbadge?

I hadn't even noticed there was a number stamped on the headbadge until you asked.
The number is 3428.

The rear wheel seems to have a slight pulse. Could that be caused from it being out of round? It's like it binds up at a certain point and then releases. If I spin it and watch the hub, I can see a slight deviation when it gets to that bound up point. I haven't repacked it. Is that something I should do?

Ok, so what you have here is a Sprint made in December of 1988. You should definitely do something about the tire. It is probably rubbing against the breakpad at a certain point. See if you can find the place where it rubs.

I think I've found the spot. What do I do about it now? For future reference, how do you decode the head badge number for build date? If I were to upgrade to brake shifters, would it be very difficult to adjust indexing? I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but I'm new to this. After I changed tires, I was able to readjust everything back to right. Should it be that easy? I know some think it's crazy to put even a dollar into this bike, but it really is in super shape. It seems whoever owned it before liked the idea of riding more than the actual riding. It looks like it had about 5 miles or less on it, then occupied space in a garage.

By the way,
Thanks for all your help. :D

It was made on the 342nd day of 1988. If you want to start doing your own repairs, go to http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/ and read all you want.
Your Sprint is a fine looking bike. Nothing wrong with fixing it up. Updating to indexed shifting would be quite expensive. You might as well buy a new bike. Ride the Sprint as is, until you know what it is you want.

Thanks for the info and the input. I think I already have indexed shifting, if that means it clicks to change to each gear. If I switched to barcons could I keep existing indexing? One last thing before I cruise over to parktool to to try and fix my problem. If it's rubbing a little in one spot on the wheel, could that be the spokes in need of adjustment?

Oh yes, you do already have indexed shifting! You could use barcons, just make sure they will work with the number of gears you have. On the park site, look for "Wheels- truing and rim straightening". And yes, it most likely is just a matter of spoke adjustment.
Good Luck!