Our goal is to provide easy to follow, step-by-step cycling related guides, and reviews for bikes & gear. Most people might not know this but Schwinn was involved in the marketing of motorscooters back in 2005. By 1960, all bike manufacturers only had annual sales of 4.4 million but Schwinn was enjoying a huge chunk of the cake.
The picture showed company executives standing behind their new product, that would remain in production for 10 years. 1955 was the first year in which the Corvette appeared in the Schwinn catalog; it was Schwinn’s top listing in their “middleweight” category. One of Schwinn’s indoor cycling-style bikes, a fitness app subscription, and a tablet are all you need. None of the Schwinn bikes come with a built-in tablet like the Peloton does, but many Schwinn devices have built-in tablet holders.
Fillet-brazed bicycle frames are strong and have a neat and clean appearance, but they are uncommon because of the additional craftsmanship required. Lugged bicycle frames, for example, are now manufactured by automated machines. Custom framebuilders still provide fillet-brazed construction, and tandem framesets were often fillet-brazed when lugs to fit their frame angles were not available. The story of these unique bicycles is a meaningful branch of Schwinn’s history.
Frank W. Schwinn died in 1963 at a time when the iconic Sting-Ray was under design. Frankie V., Frank W.’s son, took over the company and though mongoose bmx bike he didn’t like the Sting-Ray, there was little he could do about it. It proved so popular that it sold two million bikes from 1963 to 1968.
Many German business owners in the U.S. faced considerable scrutiny and sales losses as anti-German sentiment spread during both World Wars. To compensate, some went the extra mile to flag wave and prove their American patriotism. Having schwinn bicycles made their fame on the “WORLD” bicycle, they weren’t going to try to pass themselves off as nationalists. They would, however, make a point of celebrating the “Made in the USA” aspect of the brand above the “German engineering” element.
To get through the Great Depression, Arnold, Schwinn & Co. basically looked to the same playbook that had helped them survive the challenges of 1895—new blood, fresh ideas, and superior designs. For as much as Ignaz Schwinn stuck to his stereotypically German principles, his company mainly succeeded because of how it rolled with unexpected punches. Sometimes, that meant having to make some painful sacrifices, like putting that aforementioned German heritage on the back burner. Adolph Arnold had certainly played a vital role in indoctrinating Ignaz into the cutthroat world of frontier capitalism, but come 1908, a helping hand was no longer required. Schwinn bought out Arnold’s share of the company, installing himself as the sole master and commander of the business (although he did keep the Arnold, Schwinn & Co. name in use for decades afterward).
Schwinn Collegiate is a classic hybrid bike with an attractive old-school-cool look. This model is special because each bicycle was designed in Madison, Wisconsin and the steel frames were hand-welded in Detroit, byDetroit Bikes. Schwinn is the American icon that has built some of the best-known and most-loved bicycles of all time.
With Glenn Coleman from Crain’s New York Business, they started investigating the reasons for the turmoil of America’s most notorious cycling brand. I work in marketing, I love sports and am thankfull for much of what life offers. The Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing expanded in June after contracting the previous two months thanks to renewed hiring, increased orders and expanding production.
W. Schwinn, grandson Frank Valentine Schwinn took over management of the company. Interestingly, Schwinn’s 1970’s catalogs didn’t really differentiate the fillet-brazed CrMo models either. They were simply shown on the next catalog page, right before the Continental page. No separate catalog or distinct section for “lightweight touring and racing bicycles,” and no detailed discussion of the benefits of seamless CrMo tubing and fillet brazing. Schwinn’s catalog copy for the last fillet-brazed Superior ( ) did begin to mention “hand made” and a little more on fillet brazing.
At the close of the 1920s, the stock market crash decimated the American motorcycle industry, taking Excelsior-Henderson with it. With no buyers, Excelsior-Henderson motorcycles were discontinued in 1931. W. Schwinn returned to Chicago and in 1933 introduced the Schwinn B-10E Motorbike, actually a youth’s bicycle designed to imitate a motorcycle. The company revised the model the next year and renamed it the Aerocycle. The bicycle would eventually come to be known as a paperboy bike or cruiser.