In retrospect, the move to manufacture bicycles in Asia was a necessity given the growing globalization of manufacturing but it didn’t fit in well with Schwinn’s branding. Schwinn had started the decade as an entirely “Made in America” company and ended it with 80% of its bikes imported from Asia under the “Schwinn Approved” label. The one commonality is
an exacting attention to detail and precision measured by the thousandth of an
inch. If I recall, it was what Schwinn called a “cantilever” frame, where the seat stays pass by the seat cluster and continue on in a graceful curve to join the bottom of the head tube.
In time, the Paramount came in a variety of models but remained expensive to produce and purchase. S.-made Schwinns take oddball Schwinn size tires, with the exception of 630 mm/27 inch, which is standard. The Sting-Ray[28] sales boom of the 1960s accelerated in 1970, with United States bicycle sales doubling over a period of two years.
“Preferred” listings, or those with featured website buttons, indicate YP advertisers who directly provide information about their businesses to help consumers make more informed buying decisions. YP advertisers receive higher placement in the default ordering of search results and may appear in sponsored listings on the top, side, or bottom of the search results page. The Bike Fed is here to cultivate, motivate and unite a strong community of residents as well as business and political leaders to move bicycling forward schwinn beach cruiser in Wisconsin – through education, legislation and involvement. The challenge for Richard Schwinn and Marc
Mulder will be to balance the work and keep Waterford and Gunnar fresh and
appealing. Delivery times on Gunnar frames have grown to three months, compared
to four to five weeks, due to the private label workload. The deal to fabricate 1,000 frames a year
for Shinola adds to an already schizophrenic environment in the
8,000-square-foot factory, surrounded by trees and farm fields on the edge of
Waterford, Wis.
In the late 1960s, the Varsity and Continental pioneered the use of auxiliary brake levers, which allowed the rider to rest hands on the straight, horizontal center section of the ram’s horn handlebars, yet still have braking control. This feature, attractive to older riders, soon found its way to other Schwinn models, especially those schwinn dealers intended for senior citizens. Ignaz Schwinn was born in Hardheim, Baden, Germany, in 1860 and worked on two-wheeled ancestors of the modern bicycle that appeared in 19th century Europe. In 1895, with the financial backing of fellow German American Adolph Frederick William Arnold (a meat packer), he founded Arnold, Schwinn & Company.
To accomplish this, in the mid-1980s Schwinn purchased a one-third share of a China Bicycles factory in Hong Kong (Crown and Coleman 1996). The goal was to reduce its reliance on its main Asian manufacturer Giant. With the Hungary and Hong Kong ventures and with the Greenville plant, Schwinn planned to be secure a bicycle supply base that was not overly dependent on one manufacturer. Eward Schwinn schwinn dealers Jr. wanted to carry on the Schwinn family business tradition
but he also was handicapped by the Schwinn family trust. Not uncommon in an
era of paternalism, in the 1920s the founder Ignaz Schwinn had set up a
family trust for the company that contained both shares and of the company
and its name. The stock shares of Schwinn were then passed down to the
oldest son of each generation.
Mark Smith has a nice page about his Schwinn bikes , also some good Schwinn Repair and Restoration tips. After the bike-boom of the early 1970’s, Paramount was in a poor state of affairs in regards to competition and advancing technologies. In 1979, Edward R. Schwinn Jr. was made president of the company and promptly closed down all of the Paramount operations until they could be brought up to date.