Another problem was Schwinn’s failure to design and market its bicycles to specific, identifiable buyers, especially the growing number of cyclists interested in road racing or touring. Instead, most Schwinn derailleur bikes were marketed to the general leisure market, equipped with heavy “old timer” accessories such as kickstands that cycling aficionados had long since abandoned. More and more cyclists, especially younger buyers, began to insist on stronger steel alloys , responsive frame geometry, aluminum components, advanced derailleur shifting, and multiple gears.
Ecommerce sales are increasing among Amazon, numerous online-only bike stores and mass retailers, as well as direct-to-consumer online sales by a growing number of brands. Ignaz Schwinn, with his partner Adolph Arnold, incorporated “Arnold, Schwinn & Company” on October 22, 1895. Within only a few short years, the company became an acknowledged technical and quality leader of the bicycle industry. In fact, after just a year in business, Schwinn bikes had more race victories than any other bike company at the time. 1963 saw the introduction of the iconic Sting-Ray model with ape-hanger handlebars and a banana seat.
From there, he became the lead designer for the International Manufacturing Company, which employed a workforce of 150 men in its bike plant. Mr. Schwinn commanded instant respect in these roles, and left his imprint in a hurry. Working for other men’s companies was always going to mean compromising some aspect of his own vision. While the Hollywood bike was ostensibly a budget-priced kid’s option, schwinn bicycles it was still built to be a workhorse—as was the Chicago way. Our museum artifact stayed on the road for a solid 50 years, in fact, serving most recently as the trusty steed of a young Japanese immigrant in the 2010s. She zig-zagged the streets of her new Chicago neighborhood each day, learning the lay of the land on a bike that some of her neighbors might have once had a hand in building.
Schwinn’s badge designers really went all out, and our Made In Chicago collection includes a slick example, the “Majestic,” which would have fastened to the front bar of a bike of the same name in the 1940s. I can’t speak to Schwinn’s reputation across the Seven Seas, but the business was certainly making dough on its home continent. Even when the national bike boom reached its inevitable end around the turn of the century , Ignaz Schwinn was able to navigate the obstacle course deftly, pushing forward while most of his competitors sunk into obscurity. Into the smog of the combustion engine era, Arnold, Schwinn & Co. pedaled on. But improved “safety bike” designs, mass production, and cheaper costs now made them the must-have mode of transport for millions of everyday Americans.
Alloy rims, double-butted spokes, leather Brooks saddles, and lighter weight also differentiate the fillet-brazed models from the higher volume, flash-welded Schwinns. The fillet-brazed CrMo frame construction of Schwinn’s second class of lightweight bicycles – the Superior, Sports Tourer and Super Sport – was unique. The production flow for these bicycles began with frame fabrication in the handbuild part of the Chicago Schwinn factory; a low-volume production area. Frame tubes were mitered in a jig by machine, and then the remaining fabrication work (brazing, filleting, braze-ons, and finishing) was done by hand. The seat and down tubes, as well as the top tube on the largest frame sizes, are slightly oversize at 29.5 mm in diameter. Arnold, Schwinn & Company was incorporated in Chicago in 1895, during the boom in bicycle sales of the 1890’s.
They’re even playing the e-bike game, and quite well, might I add. SBF Approved StoresThis is a section for Commercial stores to show off their products / sales they might have. Starting in the 1970s, Schwinn was pretty slow to react to several changes in the bicycle market, as well as the rise of international competitors. Earlier post-war models like the Phantom featured a sleek chrome finish to give it a Space Age look. After World War II, Ignaz’s son Frank launched a reimagined line of bicycles, appealing mostly to kids and teenagers.
They couldn’t have chosen a better time to open a bike company; it came at the perfect time just as Americans were going crazy about buying bikes. The Sting-Ray had ape-hanger handlebars, Persons’s Solo Polo Seat banana seat, and 20-inch tires. Sales were initially slow, as many parents desiring a bicycle for their children did not relate to the new, unconventional design.
By the mid 1970’s Schwinn’s Super Sport and Sports Tourer/Superior weighed a few pounds more than comparably priced bicycles at a time when light weight was increasingly important to customers of quality bicycles. Fillet-brazed frames are also more costly to produce than lugged frames because they are made by hand and require hand finishing. Many other types of bicycle frames, including lugged, can be made on mongoose bmx bike automated machines. On bikes with original paint the model decal, “CrMo” decal on the seat tube, bullet-pointed seatstay tops, and round “Schwinn-Chicago” badge on the head tube will indicate one of Schwinn’s fillet-brazed 10-speed bicycles. If these tubes are less than 1 1/8 inch in diameter, it is not a fillet-brazed model. If you find a welding seam inside the seat tube it is not a fillet-brazed model.
Schwinn developed strong trading relationships with two Japanese bicycle manufacturers in particular, Bridgestone and National/Panasonic. Schwinn soon had a range of low, mid- and upper-level bicycles all imported from Japan. Schwinn’s standard road bike model from Panasonic was the World Traveler, which had a high-quality lugged steel frame and Shimano components.