Originally Posted by
mkeller234
I separate Schwinn into two groups, the Wal-mart Schwinns and the bike shop Schwinns. There is a big difference between the two, the ones at the LBS are much better. It's true that Schwinn is nothing more than a purchase brand name, I think Pacific owns them?
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Dorel owns Schwinn. And GT, and Mongoose and even Cannondale now. Problem with "bike store Schwinns" is the stigma they carry from the Big Box store Schwinns.. you really don't know where the line differentiates.
My LBS has been around for years, and was a Schwinn dealer in the day. He actually dumped the line as a result of this, and he got tired of the Wal-Mart customers bringing their Schwinns to him. Said it wasn't worth it to alienate customers in explaining to them that they weren't the same. You can just imagine how the "Yes I'm a Schwinn dealer but I don't work on Wal-Mart (or Target, etc) Schwinns" conversation went.
Their upper end aren't bad bikes. There's just no line to separate them from the big box junk, and as a result they have little to no resale should that mean anything to you..