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were exacerbated by the inefficiency of producing modern bicycles in the 80-year-old Chicago factory equipped with outdated equipment and ancient inventory and information systems.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. As Schwinn’s first outsourced bicycles, Panasonic had been the only vendor to meet Schwinn’s production requirements.
Schwinn had garnered experience at the Kleyer factory managing the plant but realized that there were serious roadblocks for advancing his career. America, he surmised, offered promise, and Chicago would be his destination. Trek also introduced OCLV mountain bike frames, which at the time were the world’s lightest MTB frames at 2.84lbs. Trek introduced new models of the OCLV until 2004, making changes to improve performance and further decrease weight. In 1981, Specialized released the first mass-produced Mountain Bike. The original Stumpjumper was steel-framed, had no suspension, and weighed almost 30 pounds.
When they failed to find what they wanted at Schwinn, they went elsewhere. While the Paramount still sold in limited numbers to this market, the model’s customer base began to age, changing from primarily bike racers to older, wealthier riders looking for the ultimate bicycle. Schwinn sold an impressive 1.5 million bicycles in 1974, but would pay the price for failing to keep up with new developments in bicycle technology and buying trends. It was then that the company began to lose touch with the fast changing market, especially market innovations that came from California. 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 he didn’t like the Sting-Ray, there was little he could do about it.
It’s amazing how much people struggle through the issues of color and styling. Our feeling is that if you like the ride, the color, no matter what it is, gets prettier with every pleasurable mile. Handling is also tied to fit, so it’s important that we settle on the right fit before we tune the ride qualities. If you look at the Waterford web site, you’ll see all sorts of models – Road Race, Stage Race, Road Sport and so on. Four years ago, Reynolds introduced a new high performance stainless steel alloy- 953.
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