These guys have flawless customer service and are very friendly. The Paramount was developed for track and road racing by Emil Wastyn, a 6 day racing frame builder, mechanic and Schwinn dealer in Chicago, who immigrated from Belgium. The Chicago Schwinns were among the most bomb-resistant bikes ever built, and they were built with unique technology .
For more than 130 years, the Schwinn name has been synonymous with bicycles. This is still true almost 30 years after bankruptcy ended the Schwinn family’s ownership of the brand. After the bike-boom of the early 1970’s, Paramount was in a poor state of affairs in regards to competition and advancing technologies. In 1979, Edward R. Schwinn Jr. was made president of the company and promptly closed down all of the Paramount operations until they could be brought up to date. In time, the Paramount came in a variety of models but remained expensive to produce and purchase. We do our best to find replacement parts, but keep in mind that parts may be difficult to find, especially for older models.
Developed from experiences gained in racing, Schwinn established Paramount as their answer to high-end, professional competition bicycles. The Paramount used high-strength chrome-molybdenum steel alloy tubing and expensive brass lug-brazed construction. During the next twenty years, most of the Paramount bikes would be built in limited numbers at a small frame shop headed by Wastyn, in spite of Schwinn’s continued efforts to bring all frame production into the factory.
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. We proudly serve all types of cyclists, including new and veteran riders, road and mountain aficionados, and recreation and transportation cyclists. Whether you prefer to shop on our website or to come visit us, we’re here to help you with all of your cycling needs. Learn more about what makes us unique, and visit us today to meet our friendly staff and experience our incredible product selection.
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. Do your research, both online and at local bike shops, to get the very best deal on vintage bikes or to restore your Schwinn to its original condition. Whether you dream of repairing your childhood Sting Ray, hanging your shiny red Phantom on your den wall, or amassing a large collection of vintage Schwinn bicycles, you are part of the love affair many people have with these beautiful, nostalgic, pedal-powered machines. 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.
Sometime in the 1970’s, the Schwinn Chicago factory was organized by the United Auto Workers union, who felt that bicycle factory workers should be paid on the same scale as automotive workers. Unfortunately, the realities of the marketplace didn’t agree, and Schwinn closed the factory, transferring most production to Japan (Panasonic) and Taiwan (Giant). Schwinn also built a factory in Greenville, Mississippi, but it didn’t last, and even bought a factory in schwinn beach cruiser Hungary, but the deal fell through, and Schwinn never imported any Hungarian bikes to the U.S. If I recall, it was what Schwinn called a “cantilever” frame, where the seat stays pass by the seat cluster and continue on in a graceful curve to join the bottom of the head tube. Older Schwinn “cruisers”, such as the Excelsior that was the inspiration of the first mountain bikes, used a straight lower top tube from the bottom of the head tube to the seat tube.
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. With no buyers, Excelsior-Henderson motorcycles were discontinued in 1931.[5] Ignaz’s son, Frank W.
While every large bicycle manufacturer sponsored or participated in bicycle racing competition of some sort to keep up with the newest trends in technology, Schwinn had restricted its racing activities to events inside the United States, where Schwinn bicycles predominated. As a result, Schwinns became increasingly dated in both styling and technology. By 1957, the Paramount series, once a premier racing bicycle, had atrophied from a lack of attention and modernization. Aside from some new frame lug designs, the designs, methods and tooling were the same as had been used in the 1930s.
With the exception of the Sports Tourer, Super Sport, and Superior, they are welded, not brazed. The head tubes look as if they were fillet brazed, but they weren’t. The head tube and the tapered segments that lead into the the top tube and down tube were actually made from two special forgings that were “electro-forged” (welded) together down the centerline, then ground smooth, so the seam is not usually visible.