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-   Classic & Vintage (https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/)
-   -   Industry in America (https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/800225-industry-america.html)

Gravity Aided 02-26-12 06:07 AM
Let alone the fact that Giant actually was able to read the trends in bicycling and offer mountain bikes and hybrids to a public that wanted them, when they wanted them.

jet sanchEz 02-26-12 10:37 AM
Originally Posted by Mos6502 (Post 13884621)
Actually Huffy and AMF were finally done in by a decision not to impose tariffs on Chinese made bicycles I think.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-56830292.html
Looking back, this type of decision making by the powers-that-be really shows how we got into the mess we are currently in, it was so amazingly short sighted in 1996.

RobbieTunes 02-26-12 10:47 AM
Originally Posted by photogravity (Post 13894479)
GA, it's funny you mention the smell of creosote as I also like that scent. Where I grew up, I lived near the Penn Line outside of Baltimore MD and the railroad tracks were my playground as a kid. When the maintenance crews would come into town, the sleeping cars and kitchen facilities were parked on the sidetrack just a little way from my house. I would talk to them and hang out with them as much as I could and they got so accustomed to my presence, they started feeding me too. I remember just how kind those guys were and still wonder what ever happened to many of those men. It's been 30 or more years ago and I'm sure many of them are long since retired or have passed on...

Thanks for bringing back some memories for me. I like to get nostalgic now and again. :)
We had a creosote treatment place here, and the guys are all either sick or dead. I'd imagine there was something wrong with the process.

tcs 02-26-12 11:08 AM
Originally Posted by 753proguy (Post 13897233)
Ed Schwinn caused Schwinn's demise, pretty much. It is quite common for the third-generation family members to run an iconic company into the ground, unfortunately.
Yes, and the third generation Schwinns did cut the amount of profit reinvested into the company, to the company's detriment. Ed was the fourth generation (Ignaz' great-grandson).

When you shift something like 97% of your production to Taiwan, show them the technology to make quality bicycles, build them up to be a significant business, and get no kind of subsidiary, partial-ownership, or non-compete (or other business-protecting) agreement, you're doomed.
It wasn't that Schwinn didn't get an agreement - the Schwinn negotiators/buyers didn't even ask for any sort of agreement. Tony Lo has said he was willing to give the Schwinns up to one-third equity ownership in Giant to get their production business.

photogravity 02-26-12 12:45 PM
Originally Posted by RobbieTunes (Post 13900124)
We had a creosote treatment place here, and the guys are all either sick or dead. I'd imagine there was something wrong with the process.
I'm not by any means saying it's healthy, because I don't think it is, but it is a smell that sort of makes me nostalgic for some reason.

dedhed 02-26-12 01:18 PM
1 Attachment(s)
Originally Posted by RobbieTunes (Post 13900124)
We had a creosote treatment place here, and the guys are all either sick or dead. I'd imagine there was something wrong with the process.
I have lived on a river (OK more like a stream) for most of my life that had a RR tie plant on it for 75 years. It became a superfund site and they actually moved about 5 miles of the river a number of years ago to bury the contaminated sediments at a cost of around $40M. When we were kids it wasn't unusual to get creosote burns if you spent any amount of time in the water. Poke a stick in the mud and watch the rainbow oil slick move down stream.
http://www.epa.gov/region5/cleanup/m..._fs_200404.pdf

We did get a new bridge and repaved section of trail out of it.

Fenway 02-26-12 06:28 PM
Originally Posted by jet sanchEz (Post 13900073)
Looking back, this type of decision making by the powers-that-be really shows how we got into the mess we are currently in, it was so amazingly short sighted in 1996.
The internet and technology boom made it seem worthwhile to get rid of polluting industry in a time when emissions were seen as a big deal and provide the public with cheaper consumer goods. It was assumed that the new businesses created in the boom would be superior than the lost factory jobs in pay, work environment, and benefits to the country. I don't think the entire world assumed that China would gain a near monopoly on manufacturing most goods or continue to manipulate their currency for as long as they have. This country still produces more net manufactured goods than ever before, but the percentage of production per capita and as part of the GDP has gone way down.

Gravity Aided 02-27-12 05:37 AM
Make railroad ties out of concrete now , use machines to do the whole work of removing, replacing, and attaching rails all contained in a two mile long train, at least when the Union Pacific redid all the tracks near me for High Speed Rail


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