The bicycle boom went bust in the early 1900s, due to market oversaturation and, of course, the rise of the automobile. By the 1890s, the Chicago region had more than 80 manufacturers which collectively cranked out two-thirds of the country’s bicycles – many in factories along a stretch of Lake Street in today’s Fulton Market. Geoffrey Baer takes us back to when Chicago was called “the Detroit of bicycles” in this week’s Ask Geoffrey.
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. The cadence sensor connects to apps like Spinning’s own Spinning Digital ($13 a month) and Peloton ($13 a month), the latter of which we used for the schwinn mountain bike majority of our rides. Along with the cadence sensor, Spinning provides a Bluetooth arm-band heart-rate monitor. The bike accommodates riders from 4-foot-11 to 6-foot-5 and has a maximum rider weight of 275 pounds. The handlebars are wide and low and have a subtle texture and a comfortable diameter and overall feel.
The adjustment process isn’t as elegant as on some of our other picks; there are no holes in the handlebar or seat posts to definitely lock into a spot. The pedals have toe cages only—if you want to use cycling shoes, you need to swap out the pedals for a set of your choosing. Although the pandemic launched schwinn mountain bike home workouts (and indoor-cycling classes in particular) to stratospheric popularity, these days exercise behavior is changing once again. Yet an increasing number of indoor-cycling bikes aim to deliver a connected-fitness experience to rival (or replicate) that of Peloton, the biggest name in the game.
The Keiser M3i is a beautifully designed bike with V-shaped handlebars, artful lines, and the ability to connect to a variety of cycling and workout apps. In our tests, the bike connected easily to its Keiser M Series app (iOS, Android), which keeps track of your rides and syncs to other apps like Strava. The bike’s 24 resistance levels adjust smoothly with a lever, and it accommodates one of the widest height ranges (4 feet 10 inches to 7 feet tall) and maximum weight capacities (350 pounds) we’ve seen. We enjoyed our time on the M3i, including our classes on the Peloton app. But the M3i may ultimately best serve a serious road cyclist with ambitious training goals. They have ranged from barebones models to those promising a connected-fitness experience—whether that meant onboard, branded classes and workouts and a built-in tablet, or the ability to stream indoor-cycling apps via Bluetooth and your own device.
This sensor allows you to connect with a variety of apps via Bluetooth to view your real-time cadence. IGNAZ SCHWINN was born in the little town of Hardheim, province of Baden, Germany. The second of seven children, his father died when he was eleven and Ignaz was sent to vocational school. An intense interest in the high-wheeled “ordinary” bicycle of his day, led him from town to town working on bicycles and bicycle parts whenever he found the opportunity. In time, he came to work in the machine shop of Heinrich Kleyer, who soon employed him as a designer & works manager for the Kleyer factory.