Its legendary AeroCycle is proudly displayed in museums around the world as a piece of American art. The OPEC oil crisis had rejuvenated interest in bicycles and the company’s Chicago manufacturing plant was struggling to keep pace with demand. Founded in 1974 in a Southern California garage, Mongoose has always been an aggressive brand with products that push the limits of what a rider can do. From the biggest hits on the mountain or in the park to the urban jungle, Mongoose is an authentic brand that produces durable products built for real riders.
The Ider features a Schwinn aluminum dual suspension frame and Schwinn suspension fork to soak up all the bumps on your next trail ride. The Shimano 21-speed EZ Fire shifters with Shimano front and rear derailleurs offer quick, precise gear changes so you can easily adapt to your terrain. Front and rear mechanical disc brakes deliver superior stopping power in all conditions. Plus, the Ider comes with alloy extra-wide double wall rims and 29″ x 2.1″ all terrain tires so you can go anywhere with confidence.
In the darkest of economic times, he’d managed to make “adult bikes” appealing again while also opening up a whole new class of high end bikes for kids—all backed by a then unheard-of “lifetime guarantee” of quality. Maybe the biggest Schwinn innovation of the 1930s was the introduction of the larger balloon tire—originally used by German manufacturers for rough cobblestone streets. It created a whole new riding experience, and—combined with elaborately decorated new chain guards and colorways—caught the attention of a whole new generation.
By the late 1970s, a new bicycle sport begun by enthusiasts in Northern California had grown into a new type of all-terrain bicycle, the mountain bike. Mountain bikes were originally based on huffy mountain bike balloon-tired cruiser bicycles fitted with derailleur gears and called “Klunkers”. A few participants began designing and building small numbers of mountain bikes with frames made out of modern butted chrome-molybdenum alloy steel. When the sport’s original inventors demonstrated their new frame design, Schwinn marketing personnel initially discounted the growing popularity of the mountain bike, concluding that it would become a short-lived fad.
This model included a front spring-fork, a new sleeker Sting-Ray banana seat, and a Person’s Hi-loop Sissy bar. The Super Deluxe also gave the rider a choice of White wall tires or the new Yellow oval rear Slik tire paired with a front black wall Westwind tire. Inspired, he designed a mass-production bike for the youth market known as Project J-38. The result, a wheelie bike, was introduced to the public as the mongoose bmx bike Sting-Ray in June 1963. During the 1960s, Schwinn aggressively campaigned to retain and expand its dominance of the child and youth bicycle markets. The company advertised heavily on television, and was an early sponsor of the children’s television program Captain Kangaroo.
From entry-level designs, outfitted with baseline, yet durable features, to top-tier products that have the best technology the industry has to offer. The company sells two bike lines; the first one uses the specialty shops to sell high-end models – known as the Signature Series. The other line features discount bikes that are available through platforms like K-Mart, Sears, and Wall-Mart. In the late 1980s, Schwinn couldn’t escape an industry-wide decline in bicycle business, but sales of its fitness products, especially the AirDyne stationary bike , took off. Schwinn stressed quality, resiliency and high performance for its machines and it needed dealers who could explain those points to consumers.
Schwinn’s problems did not become overwhelming until it ran into the recession, and its banks became reluctant to let it borrow freely, a situation familiar to much of American industry in the last two years. According to the company’s bankruptcy filing, the bank credit squeeze reduced its secured bank debt from more than $64 million last Jan. 31 to $32.5 million. In November, Schwinn laid off half its work force of 320 people nationwide, including 60 of the 120 people at its Chicago headquarters. Court papers suggest that without new financing, Schwinn would have to abandon half its dealers. The firm reportedly has decided to cut back on the volume of cheaper bikes it sells in an attempt to make a larger profit on each, thus putting its major supplier, Murray Ohio,in a difficult post- tion.
Having 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. Careful effort was also made to include plenty of wholesome “All-American” athletes, film stars, and other celebrities as Schwinn endorsers. And so, despite the rough economy and clear warning signs that the bicycle bubble was doomed to burst, Ignaz made his big move. He found himself a business partner—a well connected moneyman from the meat packing industry named Adolph Arnold —and together they launched a new company in 1895 called Arnold, Schwinn & Co. During the World’s Fair summer of 1893 and on through the nationwide economic depression of the two years that followed, Ignaz effectively grabbed the bike industry by its handlebars.