This in turn led to further inroads by domestic and foreign competitors. Faced with a downward sales spiral, Schwinn went into bankruptcy in 1992.[59] The schwinn road bike company and name were bought by the Zell/Chilmark Fund, an investment group, in 1993. Zell moved Schwinn’s corporate headquarters to Boulder, Colorado.
This proved to be a major miscalculation, as several new United States startup companies began producing high-quality frames designed from the ground up, and sourced from new, modern plants in Japan and Taiwan using new mass-production technologies such as TIG welding. 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.
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. Instead, most Schwinn derailleur bikes were marketed to the general leisure market, equipped with heavy “old timer” accessories such as kickstands that cycling aficionados had long since abandoned. More and more cyclists, especially younger buyers, began to insist on stronger steel alloys (which allowed for lighter frames), responsive frame geometry, aluminum components, advanced derailleur shifting, and multiple gears.[8][30] When they failed to find what they wanted at Schwinn, they went elsewhere. 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.
The wheel rims were likewise robust, chromed, stamped steel with a unique profile designed to hold the tire bead securely, even if pressure were low or lost. By 1975, bicycle customers interested in medium-priced road and touring bicycles had largely gravitated towards Japanese or European brands. In reality, mass-market French manufacturers such as Peugeot were not infrequently criticized for material and assembly quality — as well as stagnant technology — in their low- and mid-level product lines. Nevertheless, Peugeot proudly advertised its victorious racing heritage at every opportunity. By 1979, even the Paramount had been passed, technologically speaking, by a new generation of American as well as foreign custom bicycle manufacturers.
In 1895, with the financial backing of fellow German American Adolph Frederick William Arnold (a meat packer), he founded Arnold, Schwinn & Company. Schwinn’s new company coincided with a sudden bicycle craze in America. Chicago became the center of the American bicycle industry, with thirty factories turning out thousands of bikes every day. Bicycle output in the United States grew to over a million units per year by the turn of the 20th century.
The new frame and component technology incorporated in the Paramount largely failed to reach Schwinn’s mass-market bicycle lines. W. Schwinn, grandson Frank Valentine Schwinn took over management of the company. By 1950, Schwinn had decided the time was right to grow the brand. At the time, most bicycle manufacturers in the United States sold in bulk to department stores, which in turn sold them as schwinn mountain bike store brand models. F. Goodrich bicycles, sold in tire stores, Schwinn eliminated the practice of producing private label bicycles in 1950, insisting that the Schwinn brand and guarantee appear on all products. In exchange for ensuring the presence of the Schwinn name, distributors retained the right to distribute Schwinn bikes to any hardware store, toy store, or bicycle shop that ordered them.
The new company produced a series of well-regarded mountain bikes bearing the Schwinn name, called the Homegrown series.[62] In 2001, Schwinn/GT declared bankruptcy. In the past road bikes were almost uniformly designed to have just one form of brakes, and those were rim brakes. Since then, disc brakes, which were originally seen in the mountain biking category, have made their way into the road scene, creating a great debate among road cyclists.
Bikes featured on the Working Bikes website are not available to test ride. If you would like to test ride a bike, we have a small selection of bikes on our sales floor during our in-store shopping hours. Over the years, Schwinn has empowered millions of people, earning a special place in the hearts and minds of generations of riders.
While most people know the Schwinn name, not everyone knows the Schwinn story. Founded in 1895 by Ignaz Schwinn, the bicycle brand was of course the most popular in America for decades to come. Unfortunately, the same history and heritage which did so much to propel the brand forward over the years schwinn mountain bike brought it to a sad day in 1993 when Schwinn filed for bankruptcy. This bicycle has been refurbished to the Blue Tag standard which includes a 30 day warranty. The Sting-Ray[28] sales boom of the 1960s accelerated in 1970, with United States bicycle sales doubling over a period of two years.