Excellent photos beginning with the famed “Black Phantom” fat tire bike, first produced in 1949, characterize the book. The “Panther,” “Jaguar” and “Wasp,” with the “Starlet” catering to girls and women, follow. In a twist of fate, just as adult bicycle sales were exploding,
Schwinn did not have the desired lightweight models available in high volumes
for its customer. The factory had invested heavily in electro-forged welding machines
that were not suitable for modern types of steel.
According to old-timers, “Regression analysis
clashed with the glad-handing old boy school culture. (Crown and Coleman 1996, p142)
“ Ed Schwinn, Jr. broke with long-time managers
including the well respected Ray Burch and Al Fritz. The likes of a 25-year-old
brother-in-law was hired to take their place along with a host of financial
analysts and marketing specialists.
For example, most “middleweight” Schwinns take 26 x 1 3/4 tires, which are hard to find, not 26 x 1.75 as used on other brands. Spoke Life Cycles focuses on Schwinn Cruisers because they are second to none in style and performance. The sometimes unhappy family schwinn bicycles shareholders felt entitled even
though they were not contributing anything to the company. Although they did
not take large amounts of cash flow from the company, a big problem was that the
family wanted to keep Schwinn entirely under private control.
The museum is the successor to the Schwinn Bicycle Museum, which took shape after the family company declared bankruptcy in 1992. After a long ride on a crunchy gravel canal path, this mountain bike is completely covered with thick dust. The schwinn tricycle Paramount was developed for track and road racing by Emil Wastyn, a 6 day racing frame builder, mechanic and Schwinn dealer in Chicago, who immigrated from Belgium. Good mathematics doesn’t always help you when it comes to bicycle tires.
Since workers built the company’s first bike in 1895, you can even find antique Schwinn bicycles on eBay. 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. Schwinn’s new company coincided with a sudden bicycle craze in America. Chicago became the center of the American bicycle industry, with thirty factories turning out thousands of bikes every day.
With catalogs featuring places like Disneyland and 20th Century Fox,
marketing continued to be a Schwinn strong point. However, management had begun
to ignore the need to retool its factory. Sales were still at all-time highs, but with the
market share declining, Swhinn’s dominance in the bicycle industry was on the
wane. The Varsities and Continentals did prove to be popular among
teenagers who were fairly rough on their bicycles.
On his part, Schwinn never gave up on the bicycle side of his
company but he recognized that to survive his company would have to diversify. As a child, I never owned a Schwinn bike but I learned about them from others in my neighborhood. Families not only passed them on from one son or daughter to another but sometimes they survived and were used by subsequent generations. I also worked in a Schwinn bicycle shop in the 1970s and I became very familiar with the Schwinn brand. I recently rebuilt an old 1983 Schwinn Le Tour and the article had been quite popular. • Hybrid – a range of fitness-orientated bikes that are comfortable and capable on the road or on off-road paths.
The
question would be whether the new management team assembled by a young Ed
Schwinn, Jr. could prepare the company for the coming decade. In the era of Rosie the Riveter, the composition of Schwinn’s
workforce also changed. Male and some female Schwinn employees were reporting
for overseas duty in large numbers. Schwinn adopted a policy to encourage the
family members of those leaving for military service to fill their vacant jobs. Many mothers, wives, and sisters began
working on the Schwinn’s factory floor as their loved ones headed for the military
conflicts in Europe and Japan. During the war years, women became the main
workforce for Schwinn.