From what I gathered in this forum, the first digit of the serial number should be the year (83?). Yours is in on the lower head lug and that supposedly means made in Osaka Japan.
Also the stamped # on the headbadge should be the day number followed by the year. Yours seems to correspond! On my Panasonic they didn't.
Nice bike!
tuz,
Thanks alot. I knew Panasonic made bikes for Schwinn, and thought the badge stamp might be a clue, but the format didn't match their system. The head badge stamp has a first digit of 5, complete number is 5263, so unless there are more than 526 days in a year, that doesn't fit! which is why I guessed 1985. 1983 would seem to be a reasonable date. What is the tip off to an Osaka factory build? The head tube serial number is 3H01858.
Thanks, and keep the info coming.
Was this the top of the line touring bike? I had a DX 4000 (1986ish..it was red) with complete Shimano 600 SIS and an AR 6000 (1983?), complete DA AX. Both were great bikes, but different tubing than this. The 4000 was Tange #1 and the AR was Tange aero tubing. I especially liked the DX 4000.