Rather, before bankruptcy, Lamar “rarely” had discussions with the presidents of any of Debtors’ vendors about amounts owing to those vendors. 38, p. 53 (lines 5-10). By 1950, Schwinn had decided the time was right to grow the brand. 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. Schwinn decided to try something different. With the exception of B.
The amounts and dates of payments to True Fitness that comprise the transfers in question under § 547(b) total $313,357.73 paid during the 90-days before bankruptcy was filed. Those were set forth in a summary chart admitted into evidence at trial as schwinn ebike Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1. The company’s next answer to requests for a Schwinn mountain bike was the King Sting and the Sidewinder, inexpensive BMX-derived bicycles fabricated from existing electro-forged frame designs, and using off-the-shelf BMX parts.
In the United States, however, bike companies had to find bike buyers outside the mass market dominated by bikes made in Asia. American and European makers geared their bikes for competitive riders, such as triathletes and other road racers. The ownership of Schwinn-branded bikes has changed hands several times. In October 2021, a privately-held Dutch group called Pon Holdings bought Dorel Sports from Dorel Industries, the parent company for Schwinn, Cannondale, GT and Mongoose. The deal included acquisition of Pacific Cycle, which still manages the Schwinn brand and others from its headquarters in Madison. The original factory in Chicago that once employed as many as 2,000 people is long gone.
Schwinn was, however, able to recruit an up-and- coming rider named Lance Armstrong to its ranks. This was a no-expense-spared project of Frank W. Schwinn, who wanted the bike to be introduced in 1938. It was an unqualified success, other than that it was very expensive to produce and showed little if any real profit potential. Sponsorship of 6-day riders produced a team to showcase the Paramount, the riders such as Jerry Rodman (The Michael Jordan of that time in Chicago) and the rest of the Schwinn Co. bicycle line.
Waterford Precision would continue to hand build a couple of thousand custom, steel frame bikes a year under the Waterford and Gunnar brands, as well as for other small bike companies. Sometime in the 1970’s, the Schwinn Chicago factory was organized by the United Auto Workers union, who felt that bicycle factory workers should be paid on the same scale as automotive workers. Unfortunately, the realities of the marketplace didn’t agree, and Schwinn closed the factory, transferring most production to Japan (Panasonic) and Taiwan (Giant). Schwinn also built a factory in Greenville, Mississippi, but it didn’t last, and even bought a factory in Hungary, but the deal fell through, and Schwinn never imported any Hungarian bikes to the U.S.
The Sting-Ray[28] sales boom of the 1960s accelerated in 1970, with United States bicycle sales doubling over a period of two years. However, there were clear warning signs on the horizon. 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.