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Remembering the Britain that made things.
———
Do you still remember the clear ring of a bicycle bell on a long summer afternoon?
Do you remember the name Schwinn shimmering on a long chrome frame?
That long banana seat you could almost lie back on. Those high-rise bars that lifted your hands up near your shoulders. Nothing else in the driveway looked anything like it.
In nineteen fifty, a single factory in Chicago built roughly a quarter of every bicycle in America. They called it the Cadillac of bicycles — and you bought one the way you bought a car, on layaway, with factory options.
But today that plant is gone. The Schwinn name now rides on a cheap bicycle built overseas — sold in a flat cardboard box, off a chain-store shelf.
This is how America built the greatest bicycle on Earth — and how just one man and mistake destroyed it.
39 Comments
Click to reserve a copy of our book:
→ mettlehistory.co.uk ←
Remembering the Britain that made things.
———
It wasn't just one man, as many think. The company was founded by an immigrant with a work ethic that many still don't fully appreciate. When a big company in the US is family owned, the rot can set in fairly early… generationally. And so it was with Schwinn… some heirs helped run the company well; some lived off the assets. And at the end, the refusal to modernize and build a plant in the South, too late in the game, killed Schwinn. It was too easy to sell bikes with the historic moniker of 'Schwinn', so why modernize(?)….that took foresight and risk. Eventually, it's still a great bike, or it's dated, or it becomes junk. I think Schwinn went through all those phases….often all at the same time, tragically. What do you do with a company that traditionally made everything in-house, and now you're forced to buy at least the frames from Giant to stay world competitive?
For generations, the dealers capitalized on the slogan "It's a Schwinn!" And one day, as these things go, it just wasn't enough. For those of us old enough to remember, walking into a Schwinn dealership and seeing all the colors and the smell of tires was almost a religious experience. Even kids who weren't whiners suddenly became so.
Better to remember Schwinn in its heyday with their beautiful paint schemes and SOLID, heavy bicycles. Their Sting-Ray/Chopper and Krate bikes bring thousands and thousands of dollars today, restored.
I had a Stingray and a High Sierra. Great story. Very sad.
I own a "Giant" hybrid 24 speed that I bought from a bicycle mechanic for $75.
I love it.
It's sad to see how people in North America and Europe fail to understand that when you're economy doesn't produce anything tangible, it becomes an hollowed out economy and , eventually, slowly but surely, collapses.
Huffy is what the poor bought
I had a Sting Ray. Everybody in my neighborhood had one.
DJT-2028
I delivered tons of newspapers on a Schwinn Black Phantom.
The last factory was in Greenville, Mississippi
They had some very good touring bikes and road bike. Steel frame , lugged. Then they closed . Never understood why..
Probably because kids didnt want the business.
How did that union thing work out? Of course Giant uses child labor to build their bikes
I had a Schwinn Varsity, then a Schwinn Continental, and then started my first job, assembling bikes at a Schwinn dealsership. My first real racing bike was a used Schwinn Paramount track bike, then I got a new Schwinn Paramount road bike where I was working. Twenty-five years later I was working for the company they made "Schwinn Homegrown" BMX frames. Sad ending to the company. But Ed made a pretty funny American Express ad. You can find it here on YT.
My first schwinn was a continental i earned washing dishes for a hippy named scott who lived in our area ,later on he borrowed my dads floor jack and he left it in the 29 ford he had and it dissapeared so we became the owners of a 29. Ford with a 32 box and a olds 455 automatic and bias ply tires that bumped for first mile it was a blast but dad traded it for a new floor jack.
When I was a kid, I WANTED a Schwinn Manta Ray; oh how I WANTED one of those! It was a big spider bike, i.e. the ones with the banana seat, sissy bar, etc. Unlike most spider bikes, which had 20" wheels, the Manta Ray had 24" wheels. It was also a five speed bike with the stick shift on the top tube. I never had a Manta Ray though. By the time I could afford one, I was an adult, and my tastes had changed; I no longer wanted a bike with a banana seat. Last time I checked on eBay, Manta Rays were fetching $2,000-$3,000…
The name of the person who destroyed all American made products is Bill Clinton.
Besides selling American missile and rocket technology to China, he offered membership of the WTO to China in exchange for future million dollar speech fee in China including Hillary.
After that, everything made in China.
Another great history lesson.
I had a Schwinn Varsity then delivered the local paper on my Stingray. After that it was a Continental in my 20’s. All purchased at Ernie’s Toyland in Yuba City. Across the street was an A&W Rootbeer drive in. I was born in 1951 when all this was possible.
I bought my Stingray in 65. 3 speed on the bars.
I had an orange Sting Ray followed by a red LeTour II. Loved my Schwinns. Yeah they were heavy as hell and made hill climbing a chore, but they were indestructible.
Back in the 1970s guys were making choppers out of sting rays. Cutting & welding the frame & homemade double long forks!😊
As a Gen X growing up in the '70s I didn't understand why boy bikes were built with the crossbar for strength and girl bikes weren't. I found out later it was because girls "wore skirts" so couldn't have the crossbar. Gen X girls (except high school cheerleaders) did not wear skirts !!! 🤣🤣🤣
I wanted a Schwinn Stingray, preferably an orange krate, but they were pricey so I ended up with a cheaper Sears. Later, I got a Schwinn Continental. Heavy, but rugged.
Bike mechanic from the 1970s. Their 10 speeds were very heavy!
Had 1 piece cranks and forged forks. Strong and heavy!
In comments haven't heard mentioned the Schwinn Traveler, cheaper than the Continental. Cottered cranks, heavy. I rode mine from Ft. Collins, CO to Miller, SD in 1980.
Scheins are like 1960’s Chevys and never evolved. They were good in their time but if you don’t innovate or keep up with quality, your product ends up being garbage. Schwinns are total trash bikes, like Huffy.
Born ‘57, first ride was a Typhoon, probably 1963, advanced to a Collegiate maybe ‘70. Fond memories from my youth, and of what my country once was.
Wow! Never heard alot of this before. Schwinn used to be the prestige bicycle, atleast in my eyes. My 1st Schwinn was a 3-speed StingRay in the early 60's. It was the model year before they started having the stick shift and maybe a little before they brought out the 5-speed. By that time I had basically outgrown my StingRay. So, I decided I should get another bike. I worked all summer mowing lawns and saved my money up. The Schwinn bicycle shop gave me $35. trade-in for my StingRay on a new 10-speed Schwinn Continental in 1968? By that time my friends were saying that Schwinn 10-speeds were to heavy.I think they were thinking of the Varsity. The other brands of bikes looked cheap to me and they weren't even being sold in Bicycle stores! When someone stated that Schwinns were too heavy(there definitely were lighter bikes), I , a kid now in my teens, would pick my Continental up with one of my little fingers and hand it to them. They couldn't believe that bike was that light. Even before I got my driver's license, I rode the bike less. When I would ride it somewhere, I would park it and lock it. Those jealous of me tried to vandalize it and a couple of times I came out and someone was trying to steal it. At one point, I thought that I would clean the bike up and put new wheels on it. The new wheels were a mistake, they were chrome but were obviously welded. Everytime that weld came around and hit the brake pads, I knew it. I didn't figure out until later that my original rims were alloy and smooth as glass. I lost interest in the bike and put it away. My best friend's sister knew I had the bike still and asked me if I would lon it to her while she was in college. It could help her getting around the campus. I let her use it. She gave it back in a couple of years and I put it back into storage. In the meantime, I had got a high-dollar Nishiki for a fraction of what it was worth. My wife wanted a bike so I bought her a new Nishiki. Later I won a special Snap-on Trek 21-speed mountain bike, which I liked better. We still have all the bikes and I ain't turnin' any of them loose!
When i was in the 5th grade and had no bike, i noticed an unused dusty Schwinn Black Phantom sitting in the garage of an older kid down the block. I offered him $10.00 cash for it and his mother agreed to the sale. I had $7.00 that i had earned mowing lawns and my father loaned me the rest. That memorable transaction was the first "big deal" of my life. The Phantom was a child's equivalent of a Cadillac and that purchase inspired me to make other profitable "deals" later in my life. I'm 85 years old now and i was about 11 years old when i made that life changing transaction entirely on my own
Sorry, but it was the union that killed Schwinn.
When you're attacked from within,
It's over.
Greed destroys all.
at 64, my arse still hurts from the hard plastic seat…
Bean counters destroy everything they are given too much influence in, because you can save so much money by progressing your business into closed doors.
I had the Apple Crate. Front and rear suspension, rear drum brake, front disk break and a giant three gear knob right between your legs. Wish I still had it. It was already collectible when I used it and it technically belonged to my step father, but it was my daily rider.
Interesting history.
You should ask Henry Kissenger , he used the ONE CHINA POLICY to destroy the USA !
at 22:08 is the Schwinn shop that I got my first bike, a blue Stingray, in 1978! On Van Nus blvd. Unfortunately, it was no longer a cool bike. The BMX bikes like Mongoose and Diamondback were taking over with their light frames and anodized hardware.
I remember my CCM fast back
And a banana seat
the nut-buster could never be forgotten.