So seeing as the Schwinn bikes today are NOT at all what they were back in the day, is it safe to assume that starting in the early 1990's would be the real decline of the brand and for anyone looking to restore an older vintage Schwinn they should really stick with the ones before 1990/1991?

I'm also a Chicago native and before I bought my Raleigh in 1987 I always had owned a Schwinn, most were second hand bikes from the old man down the street that fixed old bikes and sold them for a few dollars. They were the best for the money we had at the time. The only brand new Schwinn I had was my beloved Schwinn World which was a birthday present from my parents in 1980. It was later stolen out of my friend's gated back yard and I never really got over that loss. But at the time it was stolen my parents had just divorced and there was no extra money to get another one so I was back to saving my chore money and buying used ones from the old guy down the street. But the Schwinn bikes bring back a lot of good memories from my childhood. We spent hours and hours riding around our neighborhood on those bikes and they were certainly built to last.

I was actually very surprised to see them for sale now in Wal-mart and really had not paid any attention until recently that they were being sold in the big box stores. I was pretty ignorant about the fall of the company itself until recently.