As you can see from the catalogue page, Schwinn took their Sting Ray “Muscle Bike” idea and went from stock to modified. Come in to the shop, see and touch one of the dozen or so bikes whose pictures grace the pages! Yep, there’s a lot of our little museum in this book, even our Black Phantom bar stool. If you were transported to 1970 and had the chance to ask a 10-year-old about his new bike, it would be clear that Schwinn nailed the design here.
This particular Paramount, a P-13 variant for the road racer, belongs to Jeff. As you may have guessed upon spotting the Look pedals or the new Continental tires, this one still gets ridden around Bainbridge Island schwinn bicycles and north Kitsap County on sunny days. Probably days where Jeff is feeling particularly spry, as the Campagnolo Record crankset and Regina freewheel don’t offer much in the way of hill-friendly gear options.
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. While I’m no longer growing (at least not up…out is a different story!), I wasn’t sure exactly how/where I’d be riding the most. I wanted a model that I could ride on the paved streets of our neighborhood and the gravel trails at local parks. As mentioned above, the hybrid combines features of both road and mountain bike styles. The Circuit has skinnier tires and a lighter frame than a mountain bike.
Zone-colored LED lights next to the flywheel display each member’s intensity, encouraging the class to Ride As One. The resurgence in cycling fits perfectly into Schwinn’s strategy of leveraging its storied legacy. “We want to use our heritage to bring us to the forefront of the industry,” he explained. “Instead of just doing a repop of a Sting-Ray because retro is cool, let’s reimagine what the Sting-Ray would look like in 2030.” Schwinn has shifted some summer marketing dollars to later in the year. “There’s no sense in doing a lot of marketing when people can’t buy products,” Zucchi said.
The new high-end children’s bicycle saw the Schwinn name become in high demand. Between 1900 and 1930, Schwinn would produce approximately 45,000 bicycles per year in a market where both changing tastes and the Depression saw many manufacturers close up shop for good. Involvement in the motorcycle industry helped keep the company alive, but after the stock market crash, the company, now under the guidance of Ignaz’ son Frank W., would once again turn its attention to bicycles.
For heavy-duty users and commuters, who are willing to sacrifice a bit of speed in exchange for durability, safety, and efficiency, urban bikes would be the ideal pick. With more than thirty factories producing thousands of bikes daily, reaching one million bikes per year by the twentieth century, Chicago became the capital of the bikes industry in America all thanks to Schwinn bikes. Serving all the different cycling communities worldwide surely helped keep the American giant one of the most beloved and trusted bike brands in the world, with thousands of satisfied customers across the globe. If what you’re really after is to get rid of an old bike, keep us in mind. While we don’t buy bikes outright, we’ll likely take your old bike as a trade-in for something new….
This bike was hefty enough to keep you safe in the event of a tornado. The 1955 Schwinn catalogue listed the boy’s Hornet at sixty and one-half pounds, so if a twister was threatening to carry you off to Oz, you simply had to hold tight to your handlebars and everything schwinn bicycles would be fine. For most of the 1950′s, one out of every four bicycles sold in the U.S. was a Schwinn. In the summer of ’76, you decided to do some light touring (In those days it would have been “cash touring”, not “credit card touring”) down the coast.
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. The brand was deeply embedded into the culture from the dawning of the 20th century onward. “Schwinn could have jumped in and built one of their own, but they waited a long time to do that,” said dealer Levesque. Schwinn said its alternatives include finding an individual or another company to invest in the bike maker or merging with another firm. The company said it is not engaged in merger talks but is holding “a couple of discussions” with potential investors.