Originally Posted by
dblaszczyk
I just picked up a nice Super Le Tour 12.2 at a bike sale for $40. After doing a bit of research on the serial number I couldn't figure out what the exact manufacturing date was as the serial is formatted differently:
Can anyone confirm the year or which parts are original?
This link -
http://www.geocities.com/sldatabook/...976superletour will provide you some of the details for a 1976 Super LeTour 12.2
Since the bike was built overseas the serial number scheme will not be the same as the Schwinns built in Chicago. Also there will likely not be a head badge code stamp either since it is a Japan head badge.
This was likely a Panasonic built unit, the serial number may indicate the frame was built 1976 (6), January (A), and was the 741st bike built. I have read this was the method that was used to keep track of bikes built by Panasonic during this period.
Schwinn also adopted the head badge stamp to track assemble dates (bike born dates), since many frames were used from inventory of previous years, or they were built elsewhere. This practice started IIRC in 1975. The World built bikes with non Schwinn Chicago head badges did not include the 4 digit stamp until later years.
This is a very nice bike, then and yet today, and your price was a great bargain. Enjoy!