The company was founded in Chicago in 1895 by a pair of German immigrants, Ignaz Schwinn and Adolph Arnold, amidst the nation’s halcyon days of bike riding and manufacturing. “Schwinn has been No. 1 in all the brand surveys I’ve seen going back 40 years,” said Ray Keener, an industry veteran and editor at Bicycle Retailer. “While their bikes are lower in quality and price than when they were selling through bike shops , Schwinn’s mass-retail models have slowly gotten better over the years. So if consumers want bikes for under $300 or so, the demand is there.” The prices of old or vintage Schwinn bikes will vary depending on the condition, model, age, and demand of the bike. The Schwinn Stingray was one of the best-selling bikes in history and was popular due to its stylish design that many youths and young adults back in the day desired.
Schwinn bikes were pricier than a lot of the other brands on the market, but “German engineering” was a popular selling point then as it is today, and that reputation was vital to the business. A Schwinn wasn’t a Schwinn until Mr. Schwinn said it was a Schwinn. This was the Chicago of the Gilded Age, after all—the phoenix that had risen from the Great Fire’s ashes; the fastest growing epicenter of trade, industry, and technology in the U.S.; and a town with a World’s Fair in the works. On a more practical level, Chicago also had a strong community of German immigrants, and a huge share in the budding bicycle craze of the 1890s.
The Schwinn road bicycle line even includes electric models with pedal assistant systems that go up to 20MPH. VIP models include carbon composite, ultra-light frames with stylized forks; SRAM, Vision, Bosch, and Fizik components; LCD display screens; internal wiring cable system. Most people might not know this but Schwinn was involved in the marketing of motorscooters back in 2005. In the 50s, Schwinn changed its marketing strategy and became more aggressive when dealing with distributors; this was aimed at making the company a dominant force in the industry. Many big companies went bankrupt while the smaller ones were absorbed.
Keeping it all current and up to today’s standards, this frame does include a decoupler that uses elastomer units between the seat stay and seat tube and allow for 15 mm (0.6 in) of travel. One of the main reasons why this e-bike comes in with such an affordable tag is because of the frame. Instead of using carbon for the frame’s construction, resulting in some over-priced but capable piece of hardware you’d never fully harness, Schwinn chose to stick with 6061 aluminum.
Unfortunately, the market got saturated and as a result, the short-lived bicycle boom came to an abrupt end. Most models of Schwinn bikes have years of images and information via old catalogs, advertisements and Schwinn documentation. This page lists mongoose bmx bike models and links to their details.