It was a bit pricey for a pre-teen, but the bike was well-built. The Schwinn catalog description of entry for Crosscut revealed that it was a well-designed bike. The request for compensation for the Schwinn name caused a great deal of turmoil in bankruptcy court.
Unlike its progenitors, the Klunker proved incapable of withstanding hard off-road use, and after an unsuccessful attempt to reintroduce the model as the Spitfire 5, it was dropped from production. A growing number of US teens and young adults were purchasing imported European sport racing or sport touring bicycles, many fitted with multiple derailleur-shifted gears. Schwinn decided to meet the challenge by developing two lines of sport or road ‘racer’ bicycles. One was already in the catalog — the limited production Paramount series. As always, the Paramount spared no expense; the bicycles were given high-quality lightweight lugged steel frames using double-butted tubes of Reynolds 531 and fitted with quality European components including Campagnolo derailleurs, hubs, and gears. The Paramount series had limited production numbers, making vintage examples quite rare today.
The violation of the financial covenants meant that the banks were in the driver’s seat. They insisted that Schwinn prepare a financial recovery plan. The confrontation with the bankers in the early 1990s had been set up by an earlier decision not to raise money in the private capital markets. The Schwinn family did not want to have outsiders controlling the fate of Schwinn.
By 1979, even the Paramount had been passed, technologically speaking, by a new generation of American as well as foreign custom bicycle manufacturers. Schwinn was soon sponsoring a bicycle racing team headed by Emil Wastyn, who designed the team bikes, and the company competed in six-day racing across the United States with riders such as Jerry Rodman and Russell Allen. In 1938, Frank W. Schwinn officially introduced the Paramount series.
Other road bikes were introduced by Schwinn in the early and mid 1960s, such as the Superior, Sierra, and Super Continental, but these were only produced for a few years. The Varsity and Continental sold in large numbers through schwinn beach cruiser the 1960s and early 1970s, becoming Scwhinn’s leading models. The wheel rims were likewise robust, chromed, stamped steel with a unique profile designed to hold the tire bead securely, even if pressure were low or lost.
The main value for a company wishing to purchase Schwinn would be the Schwinn name. The lawyer for the Trust played hardball and stated that the family wanted compensation for the name. The suppliers saw the writing on the wall and quit sending bikes to Schwinn. The Schwinn Family Trust recipients were irate schwinn ebike over a cessation of payments. The closing of the Greenville factory combined with the globalization of the bicycle industry meant that Schwinn would never again be making bicycles in the USA. Some of Schwinn’s dealers saw the writing on the wall and they began to carry Trek and other bicycle brands.