Owner Of Gazelle Bikes Buys Cannondale, Schwinn For $810 Million

The new company produced a series of well-regarded mountain bikes bearing the Schwinn name, called the Homegrown series. 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. Both Trek and Schwinn make good bicycles, but they’re suitable for different types of riders. If you are a serious fitness rider or you aspire to race, get a Trek model. If you are a casual rider who just enjoys cycling, Schwinn will do the job at a low price. If you’d like to see or try the bike in person, you can do that at Target or Walmart.

The RXe model is basically a gravel/commuter e-bike with drop bars, disc brakes, 650B x 47mm tires, and a SRAM Apex 11-speed drivetrain. The mechanical disc brakes are the cherry on the top as they are a rare find in this price range. If you were using V-brakes before, you’ll be astonished to find out how much better braking with discs is.

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“There’s no sense in doing a lot of marketing when people can’t buy products,” Zucchi said. While release dates of the updated classics were delayed, the new Sting-Ray is now available on ‘s website ($499) and at Walmart and its other mass retail partners, Zucchi said. Schwinn also had to push back the release of the reimagined Collegiate from its planned June debut.

The Schwinn Collegiate seems to say, “slow down—it’s summer.” If the charm of this bike speaks to you, hurry up to order one when it goes on sale August 10—it’s a limited edition model. According to market research firm NPD Group, retail bike sales skyrocketed 75% in March and April as those family-friendly models got snapped up. The offices of the Madison, Wisconsin-based company closed on March 13, around the same time the entire country began shutting down. Then, almost as suddenly, millions of stuck-at-home Americans started riding bikes, many for the first time in years, or the first time ever. Sales of adult and kids’ bicycles surged, to the point where by mid-May two-wheelers under $1,000 were as scarce as toilet paper and hand sanitizers. Newcomers like Trek Inc. and Specialized Bicycle Components of Morgan Hill, Calif., rode the surge in demand for mountain bikes to rapid growth.

“While their bikes are lower in quality and price than when they were selling through bike shops , ‘s mass-retail models have slowly gotten better over the years. So if consumers want bikes for under $300 or so, the demand is there.” Schwinn anticipates it will make 1.25 million bikes this year and has sold all production at the plant through July. The company has also postponed plans to build a new plant in Tulsa, Okla., because of the high cost of money and soft demand for bicycles, Burch said. A conservatively run company, Schwinn has held strongly to its marketing tactics, even as its market share gradually has eroded from 25 per cent of bikes sold in the U.S. in 1950 to 11 per cent today.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s the coolest kids had the Stingray with the banana seat and stick-shift. had positioned himself well to stay in business, thanks to creative marketing and lucrative business partnerships, like his relationship with mail-order giant Sears, which shipped Schwinn bikes across the country. The bicycle boom went bust in the early 1900s, due to market oversaturation and, of course, the rise of the automobile.

Perhaps the blackest cloud has hovered over Ed Schwinn and his management team. They have been blamed for contributing to a proud company’s decline and for frustrating efforts to sell the firm. The Schwinn brand name is certain to survive a sale, but not the stewardship of the Schwinn clan, and particularly not that of Ed Schwinn, the beefy 43-year-old who has been president since 1979. Jefferson St., agreed to be acquired by the Zell/Chilmark Fund, a Chicago “vulture” pool that invests in distressed companies, and the Scott USA bicycle company of Sun Valley, Idaho. Edward Schwinn, taking over from his father, Frank, in 1979, is credited with modernizing the company’s marketing programs.

However, after unsuccessfully attempting to purchase a minority share in Giant Bicycles, Edward Schwinn Jr. negotiated a separate deal with the China Bicycle Co. to produce bicycles to be sold under the Schwinn brand. In retaliation, Giant introduced its own line of Giant-branded bikes for sale to retailers carrying Schwinn bikes. Both Giant and CBC used the dies, plans, and technological expertise from Schwinn to greatly expand the market share of bicycles made under their own proprietary brands, first in Europe, and later in the United States.

First of all, while other Depression-era manufacturers were understandably using cheaper components and increasingly marketing bicycles as “toys”—Schwinn actually went the opposite direction. The company stopped dealing with department stores and worked exclusively with proper bicycle retailers—such as Barnard’s or the Chicago Cycle Supply Company. This helped develop a legion of loyal dealers and customers, all of whom appreciated Schwinn’s focus on quality above quantity. Frank also threatened to start importing parts from Europe if U.S. suppliers didn’t raise their own quality standards, and the tactic worked—the parts remained domestic, but far superior to what most bike companies were using. The company considered relocating to a single facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but financing the project would have required outside investors, perhaps even foreign ones. As a result, Schwinns became increasingly dated in both styling and technology.