Originally Posted by BobHufford
I don't disagree with any of that. I'm just saying that there were higher-end bikes coming out of Greenville at that point (with top-end Japanese component groups, albeit mountain bike groups), so why couldn't they also produce the Super Sport?
I sent an email to Mr. Schwinn at Waterford about the '86 Super Sport in particular and the 'S' codes in general. He's been very good at answering questions in the past, so we'll see how this shakes out. If I had been thinking I would have asked about how to ID the Bridgestone vs. the Panasonic bikes as well. It would be great if it was just a simple serial number pattern. One using the letter/number, the other using the number/letter or some-such-thing. Nah, too easy ... :-)
Take care,
Bob
In the "Rivendell Reader" interview, Mr. Schwinn says that much of the equipment from Greenville got shipped to Waterford after the bankrupcy auction. Maybe the production records went to Greenville as well...
In "No Hands", a supervisor at Greenville said that he took the last bike to come off the line at Greenville home. He thought it would be a nice bit of history to have the "very last Made-in-USA Schwinn". Later, his son wanted to "borrow" that bike to ride at college...where it disappeared.
So, somewhere in Mississippi, some crook may still be riding "the last American Schwinn".