While the Paramount still sold in limited numbers to this market, the model’s customer base began to age, changing from primarily bike racers to older, wealthier riders looking for the ultimate bicycle. Schwinn sold an impressive 1.5 million bicycles in 1974, but would pay the price for failing to keep up with new developments in bicycle technology and buying trends. As a result, Schwinns became increasingly dated in both styling and technology.
Yeti was lured to the merger by the financial boost it would provide, whereas Schwinn gained a respected name in a niche market. The company’s bike lines would remain separate, and Yeti would keep its name and continue to control the direction and image of the company. “We’re responsible for our own direction,” said Brett Hahn, the general manager of Yeti, to the Boulder Daily Camera in 1995.
In the 1950s, Schwinn began to aggressively cultivate bicycle retailers, persuading them to sell Schwinns as their predominant, if not exclusive brand. During this period, bicycle sales enjoyed relatively slow growth, with the bulk of sales going to youth models. In 1900, during the height of the first bicycle boom, annual United States sales by all bicycle manufacturers had briefly topped one million.
In the mass merchandise market, which represented 70 percent of all bikes sold, competitors Huffy Bicycles Co. and Murray Inc. began to take over market share. By the mid-1970s, competition from lightweight and feature-rich imported bikes was making strong inroads in the budget-priced and beginners’ market. While Schwinn’s popular lines were far more durable than the budget bikes, they were also far heavier and more expensive, and parents were realizing that most of the budget bikes would outlast most kids’ interest in bicycling. Founded at the beginning of the biking craze in the 1890s, Schwinn became the most recognized name in the U.S. industry and maintained at least a 25 percent market share for decades. Schwinn dominated the U.S. bicycle market until the 1980s, when the company failed to follow the trend toward more highly engineered, lightweight bikes in the growing adult market and failed to take the new interest in mountain biking seriously.
A growing number of US teens and young adults were purchasing imported European sport racing or sport touring bicycles, many fitted with multiple derailleur-shifted gears. Schwinn decided to meet the challenge by developing two lines of sport or road ‘racer’ bicycles. One was already in the catalog — the limited production Paramount series. As always, the Paramount spared no expense; the bicycles were given high-quality lightweight lugged steel frames using double-butted tubes of Reynolds 531 and fitted with quality European components including Campagnolo derailleurs, hubs, and gears. The Paramount series had limited production numbers, making vintage examples quite rare today.
Cleaning, lubricating and making adjustments as well as replacing worn parts are all necessary to ensure the safety and reliability of your equipment. Since found, ECOTRIC has determined its mission–produce environmentally friendly, utility, and high-quality e-bike for customers. ECOTRIC advocates green traveling, energy-saving, and healthy lifestyles, the pursuit of harmony between man and nature, aspire to promote a new mode of transportation. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world’s media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.
Week-to-week, the diversely talented crew
of 18 workers move from milling machines to welders to oxy-acetylene torches,
joining steel tube with walls as thin as 0.4 mm with perfect tig welds,
artfully cast lugs, and spools of precious silver. Our technicians are skilled in repairing and maintaining Schwinn fitness equipment. Find all your favorite Schwinn products at the retailers listed below. It was soon followed by even more accessorized models such as the Stingray Deluxe and Super Deluxe. However, to properly answer the question above – it’s perhaps easier to think of it in terms of which Vintage Schwinn Bikes aren’t worth buying. That being said, the small-ish 250W motor isn’t going to be a powerhouse on hills.
By 1960, annual sales had reached just 4.4 million.[10] Nevertheless, Schwinn’s share of the market was increasing, and would reach in excess of 1 million bicycles per year by the end of the decade. In the early 1970s, the US Bike Boom kicked schwinn dealers in, and sales of adult road bikes skyrocketed. However, Schwinn failed to innovate and adapt to the modern bicycle market. After an initial massive boom in bicycle sales that coincided with the founding of the company, the industry declined.