In 1993, Richard Schwinn, great-grandson of Ignaz Schwinn, with business partner Marc Muller, purchased the Schwinn Paramount plant in Waterford, Wisconsin, where Paramounts were built since 1980. They founded Waterford Precision Cycles, which is still in operation. 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.
You will get the highest quality from the most expensive models, but if you’re looking for a bike for cycling generally then any of the Schwinn models will serve you well. The brand offers great customer service and manages to deliver long-lasting and comfortable bicycles across their price ranges. The company considered relocating to a single facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but financing the project would have required outside investors, perhaps even foreign ones.
W. Schwinn returned to Chicago and in 1933 introduced the Schwinn B-10E Motorbike, actually a youth’s bicycle designed to imitate a motorcycle. The company revised the model the next year and renamed it the Aerocycle. For the Aerocycle, F. W. Schwinn persuaded American Rubber Co. to make 2.125-inch-wide (54.0 mm) balloon tires, while adding streamlined fenders, an imitation “gas tank”, a streamlined, chrome-plated headlight, and a push-button bicycle bell.
As time passed, Schwinn would import more and more Asian-made bicycles to carry the Schwinn brand, eventually becoming more a marketer than a maker of bikes. Despite a huge increase in popularity of lightweight European sport or road racing bicycles in the United States, Schwinn adhered to its existing strategy in the lightweight adult road bike market. Though weighing slightly less, the mid-priced Schwinn Superior or Sports Tourer was almost indistinguishable from Schwinn’s other heavy, mass-produced models, such as the Varsity and Continental. While competitive in the 1960s, by 1972 these bicycles were much heavier and less responsive in comparison to the new sport and racing bicycles arriving from England, France, Italy, and increasingly, Japan.
After a crash-course in new frame-building techniques and derailleur technology, Schwinn introduced an updated Paramount with Reynolds 531 double-butted tubing, Nervex lugsets and bottom bracket shells, as well as Campagnolo derailleur dropouts. The Paramount continued as a limited production model, built in small numbers in a small apportioned area of the old Chicago assembly factory. The new frame and component technology incorporated in the Paramount largely failed to reach Schwinn’s mass-market bicycle lines. W. Schwinn, grandson Frank Valentine Schwinn took over management of the company. The company also joined with other United States bicycle manufacturers in a campaign to raise import tariffs across the board on all imported bicycles.
Mongoose and Schwinn are two well-known and well-loved companies that have a track record of producing quality bikes. At the end of the day, it’s impossible to say that one company is better than the other because they each cater to a unique type of cyclist. Although prices vary from retailer to retailer, you can generally find a Schwinn kids bike for about $100 to $200.
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, mongoose bmx bike and other celebrities as Schwinn endorsers. 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.
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. After F.W.’s nephew, Edward R. Schwinn, Jr., took over the company, the brand standard dropped immensely. By the 1980s, the BMX trend was in full swing, leading to the development of the company’s BMX factory.
The vacant lot left in its wake remained an eyesore in Hermosa for 20 years before finally becoming the home of the new North-Grand High School in 2004. Meanwhile, the former Schwinn assembly plant and office building at the neighboring address of 1856 N. Kostner Avenue managed to avoid both the blaze and the wrecking ball, and is still standing today.
He partnered with Alfred Arnold, a German-American butcher and together they formed Arnold, Schwinn and Co., creating the “world” bicycle as their main model. On the other hand, Mongoose has had a fairly steady reputation over the years of being slightly more expensive than some of its competitors due to the company’s generally consistent quality throughout their line-up of offerings. While Schwinn Bikes have been around for well over a century, Mongoose Bicycles are quite a bit younger. Mongoose was born in 1974 when Skip Hess, an avid BMX biker, came up with his first idea for a cast-magnesium wheel that could withstand the rigors of BMX from the comfort of his garage. Searching for a new bike and trying to decide between Schwinn vs Mongoose? We’ve put Schwinn and Mongoose head to head in this match up to help you determine which company’s bikes are best for your needs.