Hello you may have seen me post on here about my 1987 Schwinn Super Sport. Something that has puzzled me for years about this bike, and I try to learn every odd detail about bicycles and what the company's do to them. It is that ever since the frame started to get some wear on it chips scratches, the areas I am puzzled about are the rear legs, that's what I call them and the chainstays and fork. Where these are chipped now you can clearly see shiny chrome. Now I don't really understand why would they chrome the rear legs chainstays and fork then paint over it, unless they repainted an already made up frame. I do know at the time panasonic had something to do with schwinn when they where transferring all work to japan or something like that. The only schwinn I know that had this chrome and paint scheme was the 88 circuit but I know this could not be the answer. So I looked at panasonics from that year of 87 and 86 nothing they made matched. So that is the question why would they do this, and if it was an already made frame what is it.

The painting process and chroming process are not compatible, mainly the chroming process. It is electro-chemically plated in a way that would damage pant or masking, making the process chrome/clean/paint. Problem is the paint doesn't adhere as well to chrome since it is less porous than steel(more shiney and durable).

I only get one reply and it still doesn't answer my question come on guys and gals nobody else can answer this. I know it's a tuff question but someone must know.

Well it is the 4th of July and people are with their families so maybe this is why no replies.

But I'll take this one on to an extent. I know that in the 1970s it was common with Schwinns built in the USA and elsewhere for frames to be built then not used for a year or even longer. This is why build dates imbedded in serial number code often do not correspond with the actual model year configuration of some Schwinns when compared to catalog images. It does seem that in this time period of your bike they were all completely painted so not sure why your is chrome underneath unless it is an older frame built at a time when they left the fork ends and rear dropouts chrome. I do know that the Panasonic built Voyageur was commonly all chrome under the paint and many owners stripped the paint to reveal the chrome finish with good results. I have also heard stories of the chrome being not polished in the center areas of the main frame tubes as this was obviously going to be painted-over.

I think the best way to get the absolute answer would be to address the people at the "Schwinn Collectors Forum" as there are several lightweight experts there.

Image of my 1973 (Summer 1972 frame build date) Panasonic Schwinn Voyageur with chrome lugs, fork ends and chain stays.

Schwinn polished the areas of the bike that the chrome would be seen on when done. It is very labor intensive to do this so they only did the area that wouldn't be painted. Then the complete frame/fork was chromed as it is easier to do chrome when you do the complete frame. After this was done the frame was painted. That is the process that was done and the order it was done in. As said previously paint doesn't stick well to chrome. Your chromed seat stays are having the paint chip off. You probably could take the paint off the whole frame and you would find a chromed bike. Before you do that be aware all the areas under the paint will look awful as they were not polished for the finished chrome look. Roger

Chroming was done for rust prevention, then as Rhenning said they would just polish certain areas. Lately in the world of used bike scams, owners of Schwinns would strip the paint polish the chrome, re-decal the bike, and sometimes decaling them as Paramounts instead of Super Sport and then sell them as rare. Italian manufacture use to chrome all their bikes prior to painting. American manufactures and some Japanese frame builders generally zinc plated the frame to prevent rusting then painted.

Not exactly. Panasonic made bikes for Schwinn for several decades. I have a 1973, a 1987, and a 1992 Schwinn, all made by Panasonic. Panasonic tended to make high end models such as the World Voyageur, the Volare (I think), the Peloton, the Prologue, the Paramount Series 5 (and 7 I think). Its kind of odd to me that Schwinn outsourced high end stuff while continuing to made mid grade and lower bike themselves. Yes, they did keep building their top of the line Paramount.


The vast majority of imported Schwinns in the 1980s were made by Giant, not Panasonic. Giant made a lot of the low end to mid grade bikes, in Taiwan. In the mid to late 1980s, Schwinn transitioned to China built bikes (China Bicycle Company), before going bankrupt in the 1990s. Throughout that time, Schwinn continued to import a high end, low volume model or two from Panasonic.