Classic & Vintage - The First Schwinn MTB's

Hi, I know we have a Mtn Bike page but, first I wanted to check here to see if anybody knows if the Chicago plant ever made MTB's..?? The model (an old 1985) I'm wondering about in particular is one of the first serious attempts Schwinn made in Mtn bikes, the "High Sierra".... I am looking at a nice one w/ cargo racks for a winter commuter and it has the "Schwinn High Sierra-#3105" headbadge w/ a "Schwinn Tri-Caliber 4130 Chrom Moly" decal on the seat tube. Just curious... Thanks:D

Hi, I know we have a Mtn Bike page but, first I wanted to check here to see if anybody knows if the Chicago plant ever made MTB's..?? The model (an old 1985) I'm wondering about in particular is one of the first serious attempts Schwinn made in Mtn bikes, the "High Sierra".... I am looking at a nice one w/ cargo racks for a winter commuter and it has the "Schwinn High Sierra-#3105" headbadge w/ a "Schwinn Tri-Caliber 4130 Chrom Moly" decal on the downtube. Just curious... Thanks:D

Seems like we've discussed this Chicago thing before. ;) The Chicago plant closed in late '83, so there's no way an '85 was made in Chicago. But the High Sierra goes back as far as '83, I believe, so those earlier models would be a possibility. Also, the King Stings and Sidewinders come to mind as possibly Chicago-built, although they've always struck me more as sort of oversized BMX bikes than mountain bikes. They're nice bikes, though, particularly the King Stings, whatever you want to call them.........Bob Hufford, Scooper, or Sierra will hopefully chime in with more info.............I've got one of the 4130 High Sierras myself, and I agree that they would make very good commuters. I used to load similar bikes up with a rack and overnight gear, and do weekend campouts with some riding buddies. Bulletproof old bikes, and the ones that got me hooked on mountain biking in the first place. :)

Here's the rundown on the Schwinn MTB history:

http://www.firstflightbikes.com/schwinn_specs.htm

What's missing is the "Clunker" frames based on the Schwinn heavyweights of the '30s/'40s that were used as the basis of the "Repack" bikes that were part of the genesis of the whole MTB thing. Schwinn even honored that with the Klunker 5 model (based on their Spitfire middleweight) in 1978. The name was copyrighted, so they had to pull it pretty quickly.

BTW, I do like the early Schwinn MTBs. I have two '87 Cimarrons and an '87 High Sierra. My dad used to have an '82 Sidewinder, but it lives at First Flight's museum now ...

http://www.firstflightbikes.com/1982_Sidewinder.htm

Bob Hufford
Springfield, MO

Seems like we've discussed this Chicago thing before. ;) The Chicago plant closed in late '83, so there's no way an '85 was made in Chicago. But the High Sierra goes back as far as '83, I believe, so those earlier models would be a possibility. Also, the King Stings and Sidewinders come to mind as possibly Chicago-built, although they've always struck me more as sort of oversized BMX bikes than mountain bikes. They're nice bikes, though, particularly the King Stings, whatever you want to call them.........Bob Hufford, Scooper, or Sierra will hopefully chime in with more info.............I've got one of the 4130 High Sierras myself, and I agree that they would make very good commuters. I used to load similar bikes up with a rack and overnight gear, and do weekend campouts with some riding buddies. Bulletproof old bikes, and the ones that got me hooked on mountain biking in the first place. :)


I am such a big dumb doof.... Sorry man, I should have remembered that you did tell me about the closing in 83....

So did Panasonic pretty much do everything from '84 on because I dont remember ever seeing a "Made in Taiwan" decal on a mid-80's MTB??

I am such a big dumb doof.... Sorry man, I should have remembered that you did tell me about the closing in 83....

So did Panasonic pretty much do everything from '84 on because I dont remember ever seeing a "Made in Taiwan" decal on a mid-80's MTB??

Hey, I love talking about old Schwinns so much, I don't mind repeating the same stuff over and over. :D
And to give credit where it's due, all I knew about old Schwinns before I started hanging out on this forum was that I had ridden them a lot. Scooper, Bob Hufford, Sierra, they're the experts. I'm just passing on the info I've learned from them................As for the question about Panasonic, Taiwan, etc., I think it's likely some of the High Sierras and other Schwinn mtb's from the mid-'80's were made at the Mississippi plant. The High Sierra I have was built by Giant, but it's an '89. Like the Schwinn road bikes of the '80's, you'd probably have to take Schwinn's mtb's of the '80's pretty much year-by-year, model-by-model to determine where they were made, there were a lot of possibilities...........The Paramountains and KOM's were very nice bikes for the time period, the best of Schwinn's '80's mtb's, if I'm not mistaken.

My '87 High Sierra is Taiwanese and the '87 Cimarrons were made in Greenville.

Bob

Scooper, Bob Hufford, Sierra, they're the experts. I'm just passing on the info I've learned from them.

I blame them for the growing clutter in my garage (:-)

Prior to buying my '86 Sierra, I remember reading in Bicycling magazine that Schwinn had contracted Giant to build mountain bikes. I still have the Sierra, in black chrome.

My dad used to have an '82 Sidewinder, but it lives at First Flight's museum now ...

I have never even seen one of those before! Of course, I had given up cycling a few years earler and entirely missed the mountain bike craze......

duh, that's a simple one to answer...schwinn homegrowns were the first REAL Mtn bike schwinn produced.