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.
Bicycle output in the United States grew to over a million units per year by the turn of the 20th century. “Shinola only wants to bring to market
high-quality products so we feel really lucky to be able to make the frames
here,” Yaeger says. Waterford has
delivered the highest-quality frames in record time,” she says. The company has been rolling out new services in Europe, including the popular “Swapfiets” in Amsterdam where users pay a monthly fee and get repairs and replacement bikes for free. Marc Muller, a young new Schwinn engineer, was given the responsibility to head up the project. The Paramount operations were moved to Waterford, Wisconsin, where the Paramount was reborn with a modern factory and workforce.
The Paramount used high-strength chrome-molybdenum steel alloy tubing and expensive brass lug-brazed construction. During the next twenty years, most of the Paramount bikes would be built in limited numbers at a small frame shop headed by Wastyn, in spite of Schwinn’s continued efforts schwinn beach cruiser to bring all frame production into the factory. I’ve see people make conversions and seen enough of the highest end. This is the deal that no one can beat and won’t for a while. The list is long of what the bike has from the 1000 Watt hub motor to the hydraulic brakes to front shocks.
Another problem was Schwinn’s failure to design and market its bicycles to specific, identifiable buyers, especially the growing number of cyclists interested in road racing or touring. Instead, most Schwinn derailleur bikes were marketed to the general leisure market, equipped with heavy “old timer” accessories such as kickstands that cycling aficionados had long since abandoned. While the Paramount still sold in limited numbers to this market, the model’s customer base began to age, changing from primarily bike racers to older, wealthier riders looking for the ultimate bicycle. Schwinn sold an impressive 1.5 million bicycles in 1974, but would pay the price for failing to keep up with new developments in bicycle technology and buying trends. With the first production bike designed specifically for indoor cycling, Schwinn set the standard for an industry.
F. Goodrich bicycles, sold in tire stores, Schwinn eliminated the practice of producing private label bicycles in 1950, insisting that the Schwinn brand and guarantee appear on all products. In exchange for ensuring the presence of the Schwinn name, distributors retained the right to distribute Schwinn bikes to any hardware store, toy store, or bicycle shop that ordered them. W. Schwinn tasked a new team to plan future business strategy, consisting of marketing supervisor Ray Burch, general manager Bill Stoeffhaas, and design supervisor Al Fritz. Schwinn’s whisper quiet Smooth Cycling series allows riders to channel their attention to any experience that a studio is striving to achieve.
The limited run of Paramounts and the
foundation of the Waterford and Gunnar models connect the company to its
lineage as an offspring of the once-dominant Schwinn line. At one time, Schwinn
employed 2,000 people in its Chicago factory. That’s about the schwinn dealers number of bikes
that Waterford now produces in a year. The overall value of a Schwinn vintage bike will vary based on its condition, age, and scarcity. Irrespective of their age, most Schwinn cycles in good condition retain their value for a long time.