The classic Flying Pigeon is a singlespeed with 28-inch wheels, a fully covered chain, a rear rack, and push-rod brakes. Based in northeastern China, the Flying Pigeon factory has made more than 500 million PA-02s since 1950. But the Peugeot PX-10 was not a bicycle reserved for the most elite professional cyclists. In fact, it was one of the first affordable high-performance bicycles and is considered a racing bike for the masses. Today the Peugeot PX-10s are one of the most iconic and collected bicycles from the 60s and 70s.
“There’s no sense in doing a lot of marketing when people can’t buy products,” Zucchi said. Although the company’s 125th anniversary plans were rescheduled, Schwinn has been using social media to welcome consumers who’ve come back to cycling during the crisis. Like most businesses during the pandemic, Schwinn’s nearly 100 employees have been operating remotely. “We’ve reviewed next year’s products with customers via Zoom,” Zucchi said from his home when CNBC spoke with him again, in early June. Well before the pandemic upended its original plans, Schwinn was facing a steep climb in regaining the brand’s popularity, which peaked during the mid-20th century, and competing in the current fragmented marketplace.
The company’s next answer to requests for a Schwinn mountain bike was the King Sting and the Sidewinder, inexpensive BMX-derived bicycles fabricated from existing electro-forged frame designs, and using off-the-shelf BMX parts. In 1978 production of the fillet-brazed Superior stopped, which marked the end of production for a fine Schwinn frameset whose basic design had been in service since 1938. Today fillet brazing is a fabrication method best suited for custom and specialty bicycles, yet from 1938 to 1978 you could walk into any Schwinn shop and buy this kind of bike off the rack. The fillet-brazed CrMo frame construction of Schwinn’s second class of lightweight bicycles – the Superior, Sports Tourer and Super Sport – was unique.
By the mid-1970s, competition from lightweight and feature-rich imported bikes was making strong inroads in the budget-priced and beginners’ market. 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. The technology of Schwinn’s fillet mongoose bmx bike brazed models has been eclipsed by today’s bicycle frame, shifting, and braking technology. But it is worth remembering this peculiar little chapter in the story of Chicago Schwinns. The bicycle industry is constantly changing, as evidenced by the shift away from racing bikes that eventually caught up to Schwinn and Paramount in the 1980s, and the waves of Chinese built frames that now dominate the market.
Schwinn was born in Baden, Germany and moved to Chicago in 1891, attracted by the opportunities surrounding the Columbian Exposition. After working for bicycle manufacturer Hill & Moffat, and a brief stint designing bicycles for the International Manufacturing Company, Schwinn teamed up with Adolph Arnold to open his own company, Arnold, Schwinn, & Co. Bicycle manufacturing in America has declined significantly in the past several decades. But Detroit Bikes is eager to bring at least a part of the industry back to domestic soil, where demand for all manner of bikes and other outdoor equipment is booming amid pandemic restrictions. Like Shinola, Detroit Bikes has seen growth in online sales due to retail shutdown. According to Pashak, the bicycle maker has seen online sales shoot to 10 times higher than normal for this time of year, as in-person sales were not accessible during the initial months of lockdown.