Back when Schwinn was American-made....
....they were typically about double the price over department store bikes from Japan even children's and entry-level adult bikes. American bicycle factory workers were probably union and demanded higher wages even in the'70's. A new Varsity ten-speed, bottom of the barrel for Schwinn, even a youth one, probably was double the department store prices.Those children in the 1970's who had genuine Schwinns were probably spoiled rotten. I only got department store bikes for Christmas and birthdays, never Chicago-made. My family was frugal. Schwinns were the envy then. A new Schwinn product was like Nikes, Puma and Adidas whereas dept. store bikes were Kmart Specials.
Another brand that was the sh_t among American youth was Mongoose in the 1970's. I believe Schwinn was the parent company then.
Asian competition killed Schwinn as Walmart had killed American factories and mom-and-pop retail businesses in the 1990's.
My first Schwinn brand bike was a 5-speed World Tourist 26" men's model back in 1983 for a whopping $279 even then and it was made in Japan.
Nice bike though. Much better quality still than China. Trouble free. Nice Shimano freewheeling chainwheel. Cinnamon red. I cried when some thief cut my chain lock
and stole it in late summer of 1984.
Now both the Schwinn and Mongoose brands are shamefully and woefully put on Chinese bikes under a firm called Pacific Cycles: pure trash. Poor materials, poor workmanship, poor quality control. No precision engineering.
Last edited by JonBailey; 10-31-18 at 07:42 AM.