Originally Posted by
Joe_Steel
...Doing the math, ("at the peak") WI and Chicago combined would produce 25 frames per week (10 +15 = 25). 25 frames x 4.3 weeks per month = 107 to 108 frames per month. This equals approximately 1300 frames per year (at the "peak").
Looking at this
registry there are numerous entries in the 200's and even 300's for 1970's production. That's quite a bit more than the 25 frames per week claimed by Waterford.
Do any of the experts have an explanation?
The paragraph you quoted from the Waterford site significantly underestimated peak Paramount production. As [MENTION=38510]Scooper[/MENTION] mentioned they do list some additional production estimates
here, but even that is missing the true peak years of '73 and '74.
Fortunately I can add to that information. A Schwinn Dealer bulletin I have dated 8/30/72 concerning Paramount production states:
The demand for these top of the line models has increased dramatically as more and more adults are becoming interested in cycling and we therefore plan to increase production from 3,400 units this year to 5,200 units in 1973. This represents a 52.9% increase over 1972 and there should be enough bikes for all dealers without the necessity for allocation if discretion is used in ordering.
Another internal company letter from Jack Smith (Schwinn Sales Manager) dated 11/14/73 states:
As outlined in the last Newsflash, Paramounts will be allocated on a quarterly basis and our production schedule for 1974 is 19 units per day, but we are allocating 18 per day based on each Sales Company's past purchasing history.
Now armed with that additional information let's do the math. Note that during those years the Schwinn factory closed for the first two weeks of January and July, taking a full month off the table right there. Add to that other holidays and closings it meant that there were only up to 46/47 weeks (230/235 days) of full production.
For 1972 this meant that daily Paramount production was about 15 units and for '73 it was about 22 units, and for '74 we have the stated figure of 19 units a day. This means that for a month where 20 full production days were available there could have been as many as 300 ('72), 440 ('73) or 380 ('74) Paramounts built in a month during those peak production years.
A couple of other bulletins stated that all of '72 production was sold out by April of that year, and that all of '73 production was sold out by November of '72! Even with those high production numbers the waiting list for Paramounts grew to more than a year during the very peak!