“We’re seeing our brand grow, along with our private label customers,” he said. Waterford Precision Bicycles doesn’t plan to sell high volumes of its Fitmaster for the future. But they do expect the machines to help fuel the continued demand for custom bicycles. While those prices might sound high compared with other bicycles, their costs don’t compare with those of some other hobbies, such as sports cars, motorcycles and yachts, Schwinn said. Schwinn also oversees the production of Gunnar Cycles USA from the Waterford facility.
Schwinn hopes to win over new customers with the introduction of a new electric bicycle. By the early 1900’s, however, bicycles fell out of fashion and sales declined to about 25% of their previous high. Schwinn survived by acquiring competitors and building a state of the art manufacturing facility.
Pawls then secured them in one of four positions to give riders four different gears. Pope’s bicycle, the Columbia, was similar in design to European penny farthings, but his monopoly on bicycle patents, move toward mass production, and keen advertising strategy allowed his business to take off. Drais’ invention was almost entirely made of wood and lacked pedals, but it allowed him to travel at twice his walking pace with no more effort.
Bikes built by Waterford run the gamut from pure racing bikes and criterion or stage-racing to road and sport-riding. Schwinn never played it conservative with their ad budget, but their best sales agents were always their customers. Popular mid-century models like the Streamline Aerocycle, the AutoCycle, the Continental, Panther, Jaguar, Hornet, Black Phantom, and Sting-Ray all generated word-of-mouth buzz at bike shops, playgrounds, offices, etc. The Chicago factory was basically producing schwinn bicycles the bicycle equivalent of the Mustangs and T-Birds coming out of Detroit, and the biggest challenge was just keeping up with demand. Along with the inescapable masculinity of this operation, there was also an intensity and pressure that came with maintaining an impossibly high standard of quality. Schwinn bikes were pricier than a lot of the other brands on the market, but “German engineering” was a popular selling point then as it is today, and that reputation was vital to the business.
Arnold, Schwinn & Co. originally produced standard light adult models weighing 19 to 24 pounds, and priced from $100 to $150, a lot of money in those days. Still, the company ranks easily in the top 10 and possibly in the top five among bike builders in the United States. Roughly mongoose bmx bike 100 U.S.-based builders, companies like Waterford, Serotta, Lynskey Performance Designs and Independent Fabrication, manufacture about 12,000 bikes a year domestically. That represents a miniscule fraction of the estimated 13 million adult bicycles sold in the country each year.
In late 1980, the Schwinn Chicago factory workers voted to affiliate with the United Auto Workers. Plant assembly workers began a strike for higher pay in September 1980, and 1,400 assembly workers walked off the job for thirteen weeks. Although the strike ended in February 1981, only about 65% of the prior workforce was recalled to work. By this time, increasingly stiff competition from lower-cost competition in Asia resulted in declining market share. These problems were exacerbated by the inefficiency of producing modern bicycles in the 80-year-old Chicago factory equipped with outdated equipment and ancient inventory and information systems. After numerous meetings, the board of directors voted to source most Schwinn bicycle production from their established bicycle supplier in Japan, Panasonic Bicycle.
From the 1920’s until 1938 Arnold, Schwinn & Co. became primarily a producer of heavy-duty juvenile bicycles. 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.
After reopening the storefront on Griswold in Detroit, bike sales skyrocketed, quadrupling last year’s sales and selling out some of the company’s more popular models — the A-Type Commuter and the Sparrow Commuter. New inventory for these models is not expected to be available until September. The price is higher than other Schwinn models, one way the Canadian-owned Schwinn brand can assess demand for future, higher-priced American-made Schwinn products.