All right, guys - you're my last hope. Back in May, my girlfriend bought me a Schwinn mountain bike for my birthday. Not an extremely expensive piece of equipment - we're talking Target prices, not specialty store prices - but still fairly expensive for a penniless college student. I hadn't owned a bike since I was twelve. The first thing I did was to write down the serial number, model, and color of the bike on the back of the bike's manual. What I *didn't* know was that these bikes have a 21-digit serial number on the fork of the front wheel (black type on a yellow sticker) and a shorter serial number stamped onto the bottom of the frame. Not knowing about the frame-stamped serial number, I wrote down the only serial I saw on the bike - the 21 digit number on the fork. Fast forward to earlier this week. I came home to find that - while I was at work - someone jumped our (locked) fence and grabbed my bike and my little brother's bike from the garage. I called the police to report my bike's serial number, figuring that if it showed up at a pawn shop, I had at least a slim chance of picking it up. Imagine the look on my face when I found that the bike serial database doesn't have room in its system for a 21-digit number. That's when I found that there's a serial stamped on the frame of the bike. I called Schwinn to see if they could match the fork's serial with the frame's serial. Schwinn doesn't keep track of the two numbers. I called the local Target store. *They* don't keep track of the numbers, either. I figure that the serial number on the fork has to be used for SOMETHING - why in the world would someone put a meaningless random number on every bike if it was untrackable? I thought that perhaps I'd misunderstood - the serial might be a product code instead, but I looked at a few of the same model/color bikes in my local Target and the numbers on the fork are all different. Does anyone know a way to get my bike's serial number using the serial on the forks of the bike? If it helps, the fork's serial is C009T100345419CL03112 . If not - well, it's a bummer. It's not the *price* - it's the fact that it was a present.
Maybe. Have you tried calling Pacific Cycle, the people who own Schwinn now? 1-800-SCHWINN or 1-608-268-2468
Frankly, though, if the bike was equipped with a suspension fork, that was probably the serial of the fork itself. The bike's serial is always on the frame; usually stamped into the bottom of the bottom bracket tube, sometimes into the side of a rear dropout.
Was there a warranty registration card with the bike? The serial number may have been on it.
-- My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.
I found the serial number on the underside of the bottom bracket tube of a Cannondale I once had, was covered up by the cable guide. Makes it a little harder to track if it was ever stolen.
r.b.
Werehatrack <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:
(Harold) may have said:
All right, guys - you're my last hope.
Maybe. Have you tried calling Pacific Cycle, the people who own Schwinn now? 1-800-SCHWINN or 1-608-268-2468
Frankly, though, if the bike was equipped with a suspension fork, that was probably the serial of the fork itself. The bike's serial is always on the frame; usually stamped into the bottom of the bottom bracket tube, sometimes into the side of a rear dropout.
Was there a warranty registration card with the bike? The serial number may have been on it.
Unfortunately - I did call Schwinn's customer service this morning. They don't keep anything about the fork's OR the bike's serial numbers unless you mail in the registration card. And, yes, there *was* a warranty registration card - except that instead of a card, it was a page at the end of the manual. Thus, since I didn't read all the way to the end of the manual, I never came across it. And they leave the space for the serial number blank. I was supposed to have mailed it in with the serial number written down on it, except that I would have mailed it in with the wrong serial number. I have this sinking suspicion that I'll never see my bike again :-( ... but thank you for your help. If anyone has any further suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks, Robert
Werehatrack <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:
(Harold) may have said:
All right, guys - you're my last hope.
Maybe. Have you tried calling Pacific Cycle, the people who own Schwinn now? 1-800-SCHWINN or 1-608-268-2468
Frankly, though, if the bike was equipped with a suspension fork, that was probably the serial of the fork itself. The bike's serial is always on the frame; usually stamped into the bottom of the bottom bracket tube, sometimes into the side of a rear dropout.
Was there a warranty registration card with the bike? The serial number may have been on it.
I found the serial number on the underside of the bottom bracket tube of a Cannondale I once had, was covered up by the cable guide. Makes it a little harder to track if it was ever stolen.
Yup. The serial numbers on two of my bikes are similarly concealed. It's not just Cannondale.
-- My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.
