Over the years the Paramount would turn out to become the most successful US racing bike of the 20th century. The angle finder read 72.5 degrees up front and 73 degrees at the seat tube. The top tube measured in at 54.6 centimeters with a 30.2 inch stand-over height. Starting in 2005, Schwinn also marketed Motorscooters under the Schwinn Motorsports brand.[69] Production ceased in (approx). The Sting-Ray[28] sales boom of the 1960s accelerated in 1970, with United States bicycle sales doubling over a period of two years.
However, this pinnacle of Schwinn’s bicycle production underwent several changes. Sometimes it was up on the top with the best road bikes in the world, in other years it slowly fell behind in the development of racing machines and ended up outdated, only to be resurrected, renewed and put back into its place as the number one. In late 1997, Questor Partners Fund, led by Jay Alix and Dan Lufkin, purchased Schwinn Bicycles. Questor/Schwinn later purchased GT Bicycles in 1998 for $8 a share in cash, roughly $80 million.
The front triangle is made as its own part and then bonded and wrapped to the rear triangle. The ‘semi’ compact frame has an integrated headset and is available in four sizes (small, medium, large and extra large). It was Schwinn’s re-birth the following year that really helped get the iconic brand schwinn mountain bike to where it is today. Their challenge was to play off of Schwinn’s storied past while making the bikes relevant for a new-age consumer. When our shop re-opens to the public following the coronavirus outbreak, we’ll be happy to discuss options for fit customization, upgrades, and accessories.
By the late 1970s, a new bicycle sport begun by enthusiasts in Northern California had grown into a new type of all-terrain bicycle, the mountain bike. Mountain bikes were originally based on Schwinn balloon-tired cruiser bicycles fitted with derailleur gears and called “Klunkers”. A few participants began designing and building small numbers of mountain bikes with frames made out of modern butted chrome-molybdenum alloy steel. Using the standard electro-forged cantilever frame, and fitted with five-speed derailleur schwinn road bike gears and knobby tires, the Klunker 5 was never heavily marketed, and was not even listed in the Schwinn product catalog. Unlike its progenitors, the Klunker proved incapable of withstanding hard off-road use, and after an unsuccessful attempt to reintroduce the model as the Spitfire 5, it was dropped from production. Another problem was Schwinn’s failure to design and market its bicycles to specific, identifiable buyers, especially the growing number of cyclists interested in road racing or touring.
Although the Varsity and Continental series would still be produced in large numbers into the 1980s, even Schwinn recognized the growing market in young adults and environmentally-oriented purchasers, devoting the bulk of their marketing to lighter models intended to pull sales back from the imports. At the close of the 1920s, the stock market crash decimated the American motorcycle industry, taking Excelsior-Henderson with it. Arnold, Schwinn, & Co. (as it remained until 1967) was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The rim would accomidate the narrower 23c/23mm tires, which would offer increased performance. THE PARTSAs straightforward as the frame is, so too are the parts. The SRAM Double Tap Rival drivetrain was aided with a Wipperman chain.