Fissile

Schwinn was run like a feudal operation where they practiced primogeniture. The people running Schwinn were born into it, and they were some arrogant people. They literally had the attitude that the customer is wrong, and only they knew what a bicycle was supposed to be.

Phamilton

Fissile

Transportation? Nope. Bikes stopped being considered transportation in the US of Murica after Crazy Henry rolled out the Model T. Well before mid-century, bikes were considered toys for kids or recreational items for adults. Schwinn prided itself on building bikes that you couldn't bust if you tried. Now I'm not say that durability and value for money are bad things, but some folks were interested in other qualities when it came to bikes. Schwinn was having none of that. Through the 60s the average LBS sold heavy-iron Murican-made coaster brake bikes more dense than a neutron star. If you wanted something 'exotic', the more flamboyant LBS operators offered 'English racers'. Skinny tired, drop bar, derailleur bikes, like them 'men' in ol' Yurp rode? Well, we don't want that type of customer in our shop.

rickpaulos

here are a couple of Contis I converted to single speed bikes.

The yellow came to me in pretty poor condition. It was just donated to a local charity that helps out ex residents of the state who find them jobs and a place to live. I help provide bicycles for transportation.
Here are before and after photos.



This black 28" frame version looks huge and it is. I built it up for a very tall friend who decided he didn't want it. I went for the 1905 racer look. 26" alloy black rims, black spokes, black 1.5" tires. Original paint minus decals, stock fork. Varsity crank, small ring, stem, seat and pedals. Typhoon bars on upside down. New nickel chain. These 28" frames are not your typical ef frames. The rear triangle is ef, the front is fillet brass brazed oversize seamless cromo. I'd like to tell you how it rides but I can't reach the pedals. It is looking for a new owner. $280 local pickup only. 1983 model year. Same year the Chicago factory was shut down.

Phamilton

Fissile

The frames are very strong, and make a solid utility bike, but as for their actual cash value? Not so much. A few early models are collectible, but most of the run of the mill Varsities and Continentals are not worth much.

Phamilton

Deal4Fuji

Nice job helping the disadvantaged with new transportation but I hope you give them some fixed gear training before putting them out there with no brakes That 28" frame is interesting, obviously special order but looks to be a regular production option.

Deal4Fuji

I've finished my few adjustments to the '75 Continental. I found a Schwinn branded front light that fits the old reflector bracket. It's needed because those tall stem shift levers go into the space where a light (even upside down) would normally sit. Still looking for a better rear light, but the flat red light puts out more light than expected and also fit the bracket, both lights attached via black cable ties.




Also added a water bottle cage via hose clamps, and as if pushing 38 lbs isn't hard enough I added a 1 3/8" knobby rear tire that I had available. The front tire is the original Sports Touring that is not in bad shape. The frame has very few scratches, but the most noticeable one was on the top tube, so a strategically place Bike Forum sticker from Dale (speedevil) covers that scratch nicely. I also painted the metal kickstand that had stains on the bare steel that wouldn't buff out.




I can tolerate the original seat with the nose tilted slightly down, so it's pretty much all original and not nearly as hard to ride as I'd expected. I'm over 100 miles from the good weather we had last week and look forward to having this bike in the rotation !

dddd

I think it would be more true to say that they were more realistic in terms of how most bikes that were being sold at that time were being used.
The bikes that flooded into the American market, made by super-cheap foreign labor, were quite fragile by comparison, and would fall over while on their flimsy kickstands if the wind so much as blew. No wonder then that riders became virulently anti-kickstand, after seeing their fragile new foreign bike fall onto the concrete when the dog's tail so much as brushed against it, whereas a Schwinn was a solid fixture on it's properly-engineered kickstand.
Schwinn also seemed to be the only company around that consistently required parts vendors to improve their products before OEM orders were placed. Things like right-side sealing added to a freewheel, or beefier adjusters added to derailers and brake levers, lots of small changes that would serve the customer by reducing time in the shop.
Schwinn's bottom bracket had larger balls, featured galvanized cups and cones with chromium bearings when others chrome-plated these parts leaving them to quickly rust out. But it was worse than that when the others used un-sealed cups that trapped moisture in the bottom bracket shell instead of using a design that allowed water to run out of the bearings onto the ground. So it's no coincidence that the used Chicago Schwinn you buy today has perfectly usable original bottom bracket bearings, not to mention that it can be serviced and adjusted without specialty tools!
Schwinn, unlike the foreign competition that benefitted hugely from currency/value imbalances, also had to deal with unions that absorbed profits and pushed the labor-cost imbalance even further away from reality, likely stalling the sort of periodic evolutionary re-designs that could meet marketing needs in real time.
Then there were the "bicycles-101" books that hit the bookstores during the bike-boom, they deliberately lumped Schwinn in with their department-store competition as heavy, poorly-made junk. It was pure, slanted propaganda that convinced buyers that they knew things that they actually had no idea about in real-world terms since they typically had no sporting/racing experience and weren't about to keep their imported lightweight trauma-free and properly maintained.
It is actually the minority (here and in the sports world) that would find Chicago Schwinns to be heavier than desirable for their intended uses, the majority of buyers would have been better served with a more-durable bike. Schwinn ethically made bikes that would better serve their customers in the real world than on the sales floor, and which supported the American economy and work force rather than gutting it.
Most of all, Schwinn clearly eschewed a disposable-bike culture.

Ask yourself which bike company taught the American public how derailers worked using an in-store drivetrain apparatus with a convenient carrying handle that one could operate and observe while safely standing in the bike shop instead of looking down while crashing into a parked car. It wasn't Fuji and it wasn't Nishiki or Peugeot.

Schwinn as a manufacturing company simply did not get to operate in a fair market, so they had to throw in the towel like all of the others as the trade-imbalance-subsidized imports flooded America's shores. By appearances they could have followed Trek's example for perhaps a decade, but remember that Trek came into a completely different market with a fresh start, no unions to deal with, building custom and hand-built frames for a much smaller (but fast-growing and newly-upscale) enthusiast market.

My question then to Fissile is, why did all of the existing American mass-market builders fail, and not just Schwinn?

3speedslow

72SuperSport

A few of the early Conti's in the 60's had chrome forks, then they revived it around '77. I bought a brand new Sierra in '77 (a one year name in the 70's) that was essentially a Conti that had a chrome fork with a black decal on it. They revived the Conti name the next year(as the Conti II IIRC) as sales seemed to suffer. The early Sierra's in the 60's were 15 speeds with a granny gear for getting up those hills - the version I bought in 77 didn't. And those model callout decals are a good indication as to age - the model on the top tube in outlined letters with the Schwinn brand in a similar font on the down tube on some models started around 76.

Deal4Fuji

Thanks Law ! I'm just trying to keep up but I don't mind, and rather enjoy the debate on the Schwinn history. That was a big part of the allure to wanting an electro-forged classic Schwinn.

I can attest to the ease of service to the bottom bracket, and quality of those larger bearings. I think it's cool that the Schwinn brand or Schwinn approved is on most every component of the Conti - even the bearings. Some real good information and some points I had not considered about the competitive atmosphere in the bike boom and before @dddd thanks!