Matadon, you are probably correct that you won't be getting a thousand dollar Schwinn bike for $500 at Wal-Mart.

We will have to see what happens with the engineering and quality.

Remember that the designs that made Schwinn famous were bikes that were well designed, well made, and were priced reasonably enough that a quality conscious parent could buy a quality bike if he was willing to pay about 20% more than a Huffy.

For decades, Schwinn bicycles were sold at (Schwinn licenced) hardware stores around the USA - perhaps wanting for the larger chain stores of today.

Coincidently, Schwinn's new owner "Pacific" is a Wisconsin, USA based corporation. Maybe they can offer a bicycle competitive with Huffy and the others - but with better quality and, perhaps, a slightly higher price.

I can tell you that I see kids riding Huffy bicycles in great abundance. I have NEVER seen a kid riding on a new Schwinn in the past ten years - except maybe for a retro repop Orange Krate.

As a final note, Matadon is correct that today's kids bikes are not made well and they do not last long. However, they are designed for the need. Bikes don't really get much use these days. Parents won't let kids bike five or ten miles from home like they did twenty years ago. Plus, no kid today will stand for a hand-me-down bike. There is no need to offer well made bikes at higher prices. On the other hand, if Schwinn focused on the adult bicycle market, they have to compete with the high-end smaller quantity makers and... that didn't work for them.