Originally Posted by Sawtooth
I would not necessarily count Schwinn out. My wife owns a 2001 Mesa GSX mountain bike. We absolutely love it (and I own/have owned some very high end bikes) . My buddy in phoenix has a '99-00 schwinn high plains mountain bike with alivio on it. We swapped out the rigid fork for a cheap manitou and rode the CRAP/SNOT/HECK out of it on really rough trails for 2 years. It never had a single problem (we did ruin a BB but that is to be expected) and shifted as smoothly as my older XT stuff. It also had no problem keeping up with the higher end bikes in the group (Specialized FSR, Cannondales, Ellseworth, Kona, etc). It is still going strong and is one of my favorite rides simply because it is so reliable.
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I think the quality has gone down considerably in the past 3-4 years. Schwinn seems to be focusing on the Walmart type market now. I must admit that their single speed cruisers are still good bargains. I bought one at WM and one at the Sports Authority and they are both fine.