I just bought a Schwinn World Traveler from goodwill for $10 - it's a yellow 10-speed road bike. I was wondering if anyone might help me determine it's age. It says "made in Japan" on it, and there's a bicycle license sticker for 1975-76, so it must be at least that old. It shifts into all gears fine and there is no rust anywhere (was covered in dust when I bought it, so I imagine it was stored). Is this a good frame on this bike? It's pretty darn heavy, that's for certain.

According to Sheldon Browns web site your bike was built by
Panasonic in Japan when Schwinn first went off shore to build
bike from Chicago. From what I've seen they are good (but
heavy) bike that will do well as a utility bike.

Schwinn imported these and the better World Voyageur in 1972-73

I should add that these were Schwinn's first imported bikes.

Imported = good or bad?

Thanks for the info folks! I'm not looking to win any races or set any records with this bike - I took it for a spin this morning and it handles and rides quite smoothly, so I'm content.

I don't think imported means good or bad. Some of Schwinns nicest bikes other than the Paramount were imported. I personally have a 1980 all chrome Schwinn Voyageur 11.8 which is a very nice bike. The Schwinn Volare was another very nice imported bike. Your World Traveler is a lower end bike and I've never ridden one so I can't comment on it's ride quality. I know it's better sibling the World Voyageur has a fairly strong collector following(see the "I just missed one" thread from last week). I've never ridden one of those though either, so again, cannot comment. The earlier imports were from Japan and made by National/Matsu****a/Panasonic(and some say Bridgestone) and were generally good quality bikes. Some of the later lower end imports were from Giant of Taiwan and were still good bikes but not equipped as well as the better Japanese imports. Most all of them were better than the garden variety Varsities and Continentals with their "electroforged" gas pipe steel frames that Schwinn was making at it's Chicago plant though. My two cents worth anyway.

Let's hear it for blind, mindless, electronic censorship!!!

I have one of these Taiwanese Schwinns, a World Sport, ca. 1989 and have been pleased with it. The frame decal claims double butted Chrome Moly tubes. Early on I swapped on a set of Weinmann brake levers (sans the lazy handles) and moved the shift levers to the frame. Later, I tapped out the holes in the crank spider for a third chainring in deference to the Vermont hills and advancing age (and weight!). My main gripe with it was the assembly quality. Hubs, BB and headset all were much too tight. I caught this early, repacked everything and it's been a good ride for 15 years now.

Ya, from what I've seen, the frames are good on the Taiwanese bikes, they just didn't put nice components on them. I think your issue with the tight bearings is pretty common. I've heard that the wheel bearings were set tight to help the wheel builders get the truing and dish set correctly, but then were never loosened back up. Almost all front wheels from vintage bikes that I get have pitted cones from being too tight. The rears are often ok because of the larger bearings used.

The Japanese Schwinns were excellent bikes. It was Schwinn who discovered the high quality and (at the time) low cost treasure chest of Japanese bicycle manufacturing. Unfortunately, the high-quality / low-cost equation did not last long and by the 1980's Schwinn was headed to Taiwan for manufacturing.

The Japanese Schwinns were some of the best quality bikes Schwinn ever offered, with the exception of the Paramount and the rare hand-made bikes from the Chicago factory. The Taiwanese were some of the worst offered by Schwinn. So "imported" means both good and bad.

Hello All -

Just wondered if any of you had an opinion on using a 72-73 world traveler frame to build up a fixie. Is that stupid? I would be salvaging/trading for a lot of the parts so its not gonna be a sexy showgirl or anything. Should I hold out for a better frame to start from or go for it with the traveler?

Personally, I would hold out for a better frame. One of the nice things about a fixie is how light it can be. You shed all the weight of the extraneous components. If you start with a heavy frame, you lose that aspect of the bike. I built one up from an old early-mid seventies Motobecane Grand Record with Reynolds 531 frame and fork. It turned out nice with a period correct Stronglight 93 track crank(no lands for an inner chainring) with 165mm arms. Strange to ride. It's ok in the country, but a real pain in the city. I don't understand why all the messenger bikies like them for city use.

I probably owned that very bike! Or not. But it's possible since that was my first "serious" bike purchase at age 13 in 1972. That exact color too. A neighborhood friend who got me into distance riding was a Peugeot rider, as were his parents. He sniffed at my choice of Schwinn mostly because of the Japanese parts and the hefty 32 lbs in contrast to his French outfitted UO8 and it's 27 lbs. The World Traveler was a very smooth riding bike, that much I remember. I rode it for two years then upgraded to a wonderful (black with chrome and gold trim, dB chr moly frame, 26lbs, including pump) Belgian made Browning grade V, outfitted with some very fine French, Italian and Japanese components.

Actually sounds like the World Traveller that I just aquired for free from the basement graveyard of a bike shop. I am considering just what I am going to do with it. At the very least I will probably clean it off and see how it rides. If the ride is okay I will probably take the time to shine her up and have yet another bike. After all a man can never have too many bikes. I have not looked into aging my bike yet. Although it is yellow and a 10 speed.

I just moved in with a new roommate who gave me a Traveler that has been sitting for awhile. They seem to be pretty popular here in Portland. I see alot of them. Mine needs to be shined up a bit also, due to sitting, the chain is beginning to show rust and it could use new brake pads but nothing major. For the price I really can't complain at all. I've never owned a touring bike so I'm stoked to get this guy back in shape and ride it around portland.

Does anyone know of any websites that have good information on year and model specs for these bikes?

Sheldon Brown is an en-cycle-opedia

As stated this was the first imported Japanese built Schwinn bikes-imported approx. 1971-1972 . This was during the first bike boom when Schwinn could not manufacture enought bikes to satisfy the demand. It was a good sturdy and reliable bike for its time. Yes it is heavy, but the parts should last forever and a half. I think that it is better than a lot of the cheap junk made in China on the market right now. Of course technologically totally out of date, but hey.