But as soon as I hit a smooth piece of tarmac the chain would fall off. This inexpensive drivetrain doesn’t feature a clutched derailleur, a narrow-wide chain ring, or a chain keeper, all of which could reduce chain drops. It’s not fair to compare the $398 Schwinn Axum to a much more expensive bike, so I’ll try not to do that here. Instead, I’ll point out what I learned about the bike while riding it on my usual, local trails with my usual group of friends. One piece of the build kit higher-end buyers are not used to seeing is a kickstand.
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. The Paramount series had limited production numbers, making vintage examples quite rare today. 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 the 1960s and early 1970s, becoming Scwhinn’s leading models.
Schwinn produces a variety of models for both street and trail, and their bikes come with a limited lifetime warranty. This bike is suited to shorter people than the Traxion, so Schwinn has given it smaller wheels at the size of 26″. This makes it much better for the user and does add a lot of control to the rider but takes away some top speed. Schwinn Protocol, much mongoose bmx like the Traxion, is a full-suspension mountain bike. It has dual suspension, forks on the front, shock on the rear, and will be very capable when it comes to getting nice and muddy. On the standard models, you have rim brakes which are going to give you ok stopping power, and on the ALX, you get disc brakes which are much better at stopping and in all conditions.
The inclined bar in the Boundary’s frame provides two installation areas where a kettle rack (drink holder) can be mounted. This simple and practical feature is generally not seen on bikes at this price level. Like mongoose bmx all the Schwinn bikes, it’s made on aluminum and is going to be relatively lightweight and super strong. This is a bike that is going to be at home more in the mud than on the road but will be able to go anywhere.
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. By the late 1970s, a new bicycle sport begun by enthusiasts in Northern California had grown into a new type of all-terrain bicycle, the mountain bike. Mountain bikes were originally based on Schwinn balloon-tired cruiser bicycles fitted with derailleur gears and called “Klunkers”. A few participants began designing and building small numbers of mountain bikes with frames made out of modern butted chrome-molybdenum alloy steel.
I even spotted a routing port for an internal dropper post, though at this price clearly buyers will need to purchase one separately. In order to keep costs low, Schwinn designed the Axum with just a single size in mind. That’s right, this mountain bike is “one size fits all.” Well, technically it fits all the people between 5’4″ and 6’2″ tall. Rounding up, I’m 6’3″ tall, so technically I’m outside this bike’s intended height range.
While more experienced riders (and readers of this site) might scoff at anything that costs less than a grand, entry-level bikes offer an important path into the sport. So, I decided to test the $398 Schwinn Axum to get a feel for what buyers are getting for their money. It is also important to remember that even after you know what type of bike is best suited for you to also make sure it fits you properly.