I had this bike come to my shop today. The owner said that he bought it from a Schwinn exec. that had it made custom for him.
Any help with model etc.
I think it is a World Traveler built strangely.

The frame is chrome under the paint.

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[MENTION=226065]Metacortex[/MENTION] [MENTION=38510]Scooper[/MENTION] would know best.

'72 world traveler seems like a good guess, no? That RD would have been added later.

That's a 1972 (frame dates to Aug. '72) World Voyageur with many changes from stock. About the only original parts are the frame/fork and headset. Both the frame and fork were fully chromed under the paint, but on this bike some of the Kool Orange paint was removed from the headtube and upper fork arms. That Nervar crankset (and most likely the GT-300 derailleur as well) came from a Sports Tourer, the original crankset on this bike was a Shimano GA-200 (1st gen. Dura-Ace) and the derailleur would have been a Crane GS.

Sweet! I love the shiny color matched tape on the rando handlebars.

If it was a Schwinn exec- I wonder how that looked for him getting a Japanese bike?

I had that exact conversation with the current owner. It is a weird bike. It's cool though.

Same guy has some 60's Paramounts that need tuning. Can't wait to see those.

Can't wait to see the paramounts. This looks more on par with a Schwinn Co. Janitor, not an exec. Like the ones I have seen in the past. But all teasing aside, it is somewhat unique.

Maybe he bought this one when he started out as a janitor, then worked his way up through the ranks? He was later buried with his full-chrome custom Paramount

Middle managers in engineering companies have to pay lip service to the official plan in front of employees. They can make alternate plans among themselves but can't be public about it. If the CEO decides it's a good thing to get bikes from Japan, it's career suicide for the VP of janitors to go around saying it's a dumb idea. No, he has to get one.

Schwinn was afraid of the Japanese bikes- that's why that bike is a "World" instead of a "Schwinn."

If they were all charged up about making this great bike- it'd have the Schwinn name all over it. At a time when Japan, particularly, was starting to really invade American markets... I'd guess it would be downright un-American for a manager of a US giant like Schwinn to have, and personally own a Japanese bike.

We look back and see all these great innovations, like all the great Asian bike technology- but we view it with today's eye of a global economy.

Schwinn owned the "World" trademark which had been used for quite some time and was acceptable to dealers desperate for bikes in the boom years.
Schwinn execs had the foresight to have Panasonic build a line of bikes to spec, they were a huge hit w/ customers and the dealers.
The high quality, light weight, modern components, jazzy finish and excellent packing of the Panasonic built models turned many shops like ours away from the Euro product to Japanese bikes.

Why wrestle with dowdy, beat-up tired designs when quality fresh machines expressly designed for the American market could be reliably sourced in the a single channel with terms and support?
Schwinn led the way in the international supply chain, and then screwed up royally. By then the Euros were long buried by Japanese mfgs in the American marketplace. RIP both.

PS: Ugly beat-up kludge of a World Voyager there.

-Bandera