How To Identify A Schwinn Bicycle

Basically, the company had to choose in where to produce bicycles at a more competitive prices. The Schwinns decided to turn to Taiwan and China, but even though suppliers like Tony Lo’s Giant Manufacturing made high quality products, unlucky sourcing desisions led to supply shortage, angry retailers mongoose bmx bike and receding customers. Edward Schwinn, CEO, just wasn’t as passionate about bicycles as his ancestors were. Yoshi Shimano, who was Edward Schwinn’s personal translator during his business trips to Asia, described him as “a nice fellow“, who “had a lower degree of interest for the business“.

schwinn bicycles

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 the bicycle equivalent of the Mustangs and T-Birds coming out of Detroit, and the biggest challenge was just keeping up with demand. During the Roaring ‘20s, motorcycle production had helped buoy the company as bicycle sales slumped across the board . After the stock market crash of 1929, however, Ignaz took drastic action, selling off the motorcycle division and focusing on a return to the company’s roots. In 1931, a now 71 year-old Ignaz also handed over most of the day-to-day concerns of the company to his vice president and firstborn son, Frank (F. W.) Schwinn, who’d been training under his wing at the Kildare plant since 1918 . Right from the beginning, Schwinn and Arnold set the goal of producing a bicycle of undeniably superior design; something that would separate itself from the sea of cheap ramshackle models flooding the market.

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. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1945 withFifty Years of Schwinn-Built Bicycles, dedicated to the company’s founder Ignatz Schwinn, who was 85 years old that year. The book is illustrated with photographs of the factory, the Schwinn racing teams, and the bicycles the company produced .

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 huffy mountain bike less responsive in comparison to the new sport and racing bicycles arriving from England, France, Italy, and increasingly, Japan. At the time, most bicycle manufacturers in the United States sold in bulk to department stores, which in turn sold them as store brand models. F. Goodrich bicycles, sold in tire stores, Schwinn eliminated the practice of producing private label bicycles in 1950, insisting that the Schwinn brand and guarantee appear on all products.

The company renegotiated loans by putting up the company and the name as collateral, and increased production of the Airdyne exercise bicycle, a moneymaker even in bad times. The company took advantage of the continued demand for mountain bikes, redesigning its product line with Schwinn-designed chrome-molybdenum alloy steel frames. Supplied by manufacturers in Asia, the new arrangement enabled Schwinn to reduce costs and stay competitive with Asian bicycle companies. In Taiwan, Schwinn was able to conclude a new production agreement with Giant Bicycles, transferring Schwinn’s frame design and manufacturing expertise to Giant in the process.

The company advertised heavily on television, and was an early sponsor of the children’s television program Captain Kangaroo. The Captain himself was enlisted to regularly hawk Schwinn-brand bicycles to the show’s audience, typically six years old and under. As these children matured, it was believed they would ask for Schwinn bicycles from their parents.

This was due to a malfunction of your machine and you expect your customers to undergo at least 8 days of non-use? When a product malfunctions due to YOUR quality control, at the very least you should try to accommodate them by a faster ship time, like overnight. In addition, I’m fortunate that my husband had enough know-how to take it apart and try and diagnose the problem. He had to take this machine apart and put it back together a couple of times to even find out what was wrong. Otherwise, it would have cost another $130 to have someone take care of it. Do you realize that’s a third of what this machine cost … and after only a year and a half?

W. Schwinn did not seem hampered by a lack of ambition, nor was he content to sit back and let the world famous family business rest on its laurels. With the semi-retired Ignaz Schwinn still keeping a close watch on things, Frank made some bold decisions that helped launch a second golden age not only for the Schwinn company, but the bike industry as a whole. Many German business owners in the U.S. faced considerable scrutiny and sales losses as anti-German sentiment spread during both World Wars. To compensate, some went the extra mile to flag wave and prove their American patriotism. 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.

Arnold sold his share of the company to Schwinn who realized the importance of manufacturing and marketing bicycles for children. With lower prices possible due to advances in manufacturing, the market for children’s bicycles began to grow. Ignaz Schwinn emigrated to the United States in 1891 and make profit from the late XIXth century’s bicycle boom to create a successful bicycle manufacturing company with an American partner, the Arnold, Schwinn & Co. The turn of the century and the start of the automotive era saw a wave of consolidations in the bicycle business, out of which Schwinn emerged weakened – but even more ambitious.