Out of curiosity, are new Schwinns sold through authorized dealers a better quality than the ones sold in the big-box stores?

The models offered are different and I'm sure an LBS would properly assemble the bike,but are they any better?

Bike brand names are practically meaningless for anything sold under about $700 - $800. If you do a quick google search you'll discover that something like 80% - 90% of all bikes are made by a handful of companies in Taiwan & China. Bike frames & parts are mass produced by robots. If you're shopping for something new & inexpensive you need to pay attention to frame construction, wheel types, components, basic features and, (most importantly) who did the final assembly. The word "Schwinn" on it doesn't count for anything IMHO.

This question/thread prompted a search. Some interesting (I thought) industry info.

Industry Overview 2015 - National Bicycle Dealers Association

Bike store schwinns are fine. Not great, not bad, but fine bikes.

That is a very good question. Why not provide an example of two similar bikes, one sold by a mass retailer and one sold through bike shops? That way it would be possible to compare the components that were used. Without that, all you have left is to compare price. Bulk purchasers may well be able to offer better components for less money, but if the bike wasn't put together properly, it may not work well. On the other hand, better quality bikes tend to be assembled better in the factory, and are easier to assemble for the consumer. A very high priced discount store bike might well be better than an entry level bike from a bike store and might not sell for much more. In the end, a savvy bike buyer might do better for the same money buying from Walmart, but should be aware that store assembly will almost always be substandard

I always had Schwinn bicycles as a kid, so I have a soft spot in my heart for the name. I know they are not really Schwinns like the ones manufactured years ago, but, they are decent bikes. I bought two from (of all places) Walmart about 10 years ago. They had aluminum frames, decent components, and were priced at about $230 a piece which I thought was great for an aluminum framed bike. I never expected much out of them, just wanted to ride paved trails with my wife. Those bikes took a beating especially when my kids got into riding and left them out in the rain, etc. Really decent bikes for what I paid for them.

Two years ago I bought another Schwinn for bike path rides and it too has been a "gamer." Nothing fancy or flashy, just a nice solid bike purchased online from Nashbar. So, if you look around, you can still "score" a nice Schwinn bicycle. Just don't expect it to be a serious workhorse, but, as a casual riding machine, it is definitely above average IMO.

The content of this report makes bicycles sound like some kind of disposable commodity. And, I guess they are for the typical suburban US household. When you can buy a new bike for $150 and, it cost $75 to $100 to repair then you probably just throw the old bike away and get a new one. I hope these things wind up at the recycle plant and not the dump. Looks like a company named Dorel makes Schwinn & a bunch of other brands.

The content of this report makes bicycles sound like some kind of disposable commodity. And, I guess they are for the typical suburban US household. When you can buy a new bike for $150 and, it cost $75 to $100 to repair then you probably just throw the old bike away and get a new one. I hope these things wind up at the recycle plant and not the dump. Looks like a company named Dorel makes Schwinn & a bunch of other brands.

oops ........

A while back, I read somewhere that Schwinn was gonna sell a nice road bike in the $15-1600 range but can't seem to find anything on it. Anyone else?

I had a schwinn bicycle back in 1956, have not had one since.
There is a LBS not too far from my office that carries schwinn as one of their lines, and according to them, the LBS sold line and the box store line are two different qualities.
I was in there at lunch one day last year when a guy came in with a schwinn in the box that he had bought at a local box store and asked them how much they would charge him to put it together. They told him they would assemble it for $100. The guy complained that he had not paid much more than that for the bike...they had no sympathy... it seems that here in the Houston area the box stores sell the bikes unassembled and you have the choice of putting it together yourself or risking their stock person assembling it for a fee.

The Urban Legend(?) that all Walmart/Big Box store bike receive substandard assembly is repeated so often on BF that the meme is taken for granted as a fact by BF posters. Is it possible that at least some of these reports are self serving exaggerations and/or selective bias from LBS affiliated personnel and/or "savvy" bike snobs?

What is the hourly rate for mechanical work at that LBS? The assembly of a boxed bike should require no additional parts and I can't imagine proper assembly of a typical boxed bike would take more than an hour; UNLESS the shop was trying to pad the bill (or chase away the customer) by claiming that any new bike with a Big Box Store provenance needed a complete overhaul right out of the box.

Every time I go to Wallyworld & Tarjay I check out the bikes. I've only seen the new Schwinn road & hybrid style bikes a couple of times. (It's usually just the same sad collection of boat anchors.) It's a rare occasion that they have a nicer Schwinn in stock. But from what I've seen, the new Schwinn road & hybrid exercise style bikes look pretty decent. They seem to have good wheels & frames. The components are cheap though.

my assumption is that they just did not want to put the bike together. I believe the board on the wall lists their labor at $70 per hour. It has been awhile since I looked at the sign so I can not say for sure. I do most of my own work and have not used them for any mechanical services. I occasionally stop there for odds and ends. I have bought a few water bottles there and a couple of bearings.

As a Chicago native, I have a soft spot for Schwinn. The Chicago Schwinn factory was absolutely incredible in its day: sheet and coil steel went in one end and completed bikes came out the other end. Schwinn electo-forged bikes like the Varsity had an amazingly intricate manufacturing process that required lots of expesive, custom equipment. No company has gotten close to replicating Schwinn's production processes since. Also, Schwinn recognized early the value of European-style racing frame and the resulting Paramounts were always incredible.

I studied the fall of Schwinn in business school. It's a sad story: the company was horribly mismanaged by the Schwinn family and the brand wound up being sold for a pittance. Outside of the brand, none of the company's other assets were ever purchased, indicating how far the company had fallen. Schwinn management managed to alienate all of their partners and destroy one of the iconic American brands in a matter of a few years.

That would be my assumption too.

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.

As an old film photographer, this reminds me of the demise of Kodak. Big Yellow was clueless re: digital photography which they invented, and went on to fail to recognize the impact, and ignore. Both scenarios will be fodder for the business schools for decades.

The company was so huge that there's no one way to summarize their offerings:
1. 60s style kids bikes like the Sting-Ray. High quality for what they were but essentially toys.
2. Early 70s bike boom electro-forged "Chicago Schwinns". These bikes would likely survive a nuclear holocaust and are engineering marvels but they're hardly high performance. Great commuters to this day, though. Leave it out in the rain for 30 years, who cares.
3. Tiny Paramount / Waterford production which actually started in the 30s, ended in the late 70s and then reemerged in the 80s. Some of the highest quality steel frames ever made. The black and gold 1988 50th anniversary Paramount with a Waterford SLX frame and gold-plated Super Record... I really want one of those.
4. Late 70s - mid 90s outsourced models. Usually made in Japan by Bridgestone or Panasonic, these lugged, TIG welded frames could be excellent bargains. The least expensive versions like the World and Voyageur were great values. The top of the line Peloton of the early 90s had an 853 frame and Ultegra and was a great race bike.
5. Post 2001 sale commoditized department store garbage. They don't even "make" road bikes anymore. It's just a meaningless sticker now.

Sure is.

I assembled furniture for customers when I worked at Office Max in college, as did most of the rest of the floor staff. I had no formal training. Some people could do it competently, some didn't know how to operate a hex key. I have no reason to believe that in big box stores, there are people who likewise assemble bikes competently and proper, and others who figure so long as most of the screws are there and tight, good enough.

Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't take much to set up a bike in a functional manner, especially the stuff required when you unbox a mostly assembled bike..

My wife and I have rented Schwinns while on vacation for the past two years. They are indeed fine bikes. The frames appear well built, and all the components were very fine - totally on par for any aluminum bike in the same price range, actually probably better than average for any given entry bike price point since they aren't Trek, Specialized or Giant (actually, I've found Giant to be less price inflated than the others as well)

Not fancy, but very adequate for fun riding.

Are you saying that $100 is an unreasonable price to assemble a bike from a box? To me it sounds perfectly reasonable even if it it's a one hour job with absolutely no additional materials needed as you assume.

At worst, I'd call it a slightly padded price due to uncertainties and maybe the attitude of "we'll do it, but we will make money on it". But certainly not a rip off. And like all things, if the customer thinks it is a rip off, he or she should just take it to a place with better pricing and equal quality of work.

Yes, unless the LBS' intention is to encourage the unworthy riff-raff to take their stinkin' low rent business back to the big box or online store with a we don't want your kind here service policy.

What do you think they should charge - 1/2 hour or whatever the shop minimum is? And what do you think is a reasonable hourly shop rate? Just curious because I seem to recall the price list at a local shop said $125 + parts for assembly - but that could have been a total build up.