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.
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.
It became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles through most of the 20th century. After declaring bankruptcy in 1992, Schwinn has since been a sub-brand of Pacific Cycle, owned by the multi-national conglomerate, Dorel Industries.
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. Whether you are looking for a bicycle to meet your fitness goals or to surprise your little one, having the right bike will make a lot of difference.
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. With their aging product line, Schwinn failed to dominate the huge sport bike boom of 1971–1975, huffy mountain bike which saw millions of 10-speed bicycles sold to new cyclists. Schwinn did allow some dealers to sell imported road racing bikes, and by 1973 was using the Schwinn name on the Le Tour, a Japanese-made low-cost sport/touring 10-speed bicycle.
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. W. Schwinn tasked a new team to plan future business strategy, consisting of marketing supervisor Ray Burch, general manager Bill Stoeffhaas, and design supervisor Al Fritz. I am a 70 year old diabetic who bought a Schwinn 230 Recumbent bicycle in April of 2018. Schwinn sent a new one, which never worked either … so I gave up on that since the machine seemed to be exactly what I wanted.
Realizing he needed to grow the company, Ignaz Schwinn purchased several smaller bicycle firms, building a modern factory on Chicago’s west side to mass-produce bicycles at lower cost. He finalized a purchase of Excelsior Company in 1912, and in 1917 added the Henderson Company to form Excelsior-Henderson. In an atmosphere of general decline elsewhere in the industry, Schwinn’s new motorcycle division thrived, and by 1928 was in third place behind Indian and Harley-Davidson. First of all, while other Depression-era manufacturers were understandably using cheaper components and increasingly marketing bicycles as “toys”—Schwinn actually went the opposite direction.
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 mongoose bmx bike 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.
The resulting two-wheel gold rush was making some men their fortunes, and crushing others under the weight of competition. As a fresh-off-the-boat arrival, Ignaz Schwinn probably should have been a bit intimidated by this hectic scene, but if he was, he sure didn’t show any signs of it. For all its associations with the 1950s and ‘60s, though, Schwinn’s mid-century heyday was really just an easy downhill glide after five decades of determined, non-stop pedaling. Crew-cutted Eisenhower kiddos had Schwinns on their Christmas lists because Schwinn was already the name their parents knew and respected.