The lightweight bicycles were still not selling
very well and in 1954 middleweight bikes like the Corvette, Jaguar and Panther
filled the void for older children and young adults. Frank Schwinn and his engineers got to work after his trip
to Europe. The team began to develop a new line of adult lightweight Schwinn
bicycles.
Thoughts of putting an expanding new company called Trek out of business with
high-quality “Made in America” bicycles swirled in their heads. A young Ed Schwinn, Jr. as the heir to the Schwinn family
business would have to be very quick on his feet to meet all the challenges confronting
the company. Schwinn had a bicycle line that was identified as schwinn tricycle a children’s
product. The Japanese were increasingly making
inroads into the American market. The Chicago factory was aging and in need
of being upgraded or replaced. On top of
all this, the Schwinn family wanted to retain full control of the company and
therefore did not want to bring in private investors to pay for needed
manufacturing upgrades.
For a company
struggling with cash flow and being supervised closely by its banks, this was
not the time for Schwinn to gamble on becoming a global player. Schwinn pulled
the plug on the unsuccessful venture in schwinn tricycle 1991 just one year before bankruptcy. He began emphasizing marketing and financing at the
expense of modernizing the factory. He felt most comfortable in finance and
sales but now had to run the whole company.
The popularity of Schwinn would make it a national icon and carry it
through the next several decades. With the manufacturing capacities in Europe and Asia decimated,
the company became one of the dominant bicycle manufacturers in the USA. Within
two decades that included a pause for World War II, Schwinn did not miss a
beat. Frank W. Schwinn had changed a failed motorcycle business and a floundering
bicycle company into a powerhouse that was on its way to becoming an American
cultural icon. Once he arrived in Chicago he worked for a series of bicycle companies. In 1894 he had a chance meeting with a fellow German immigrant named Adolph Frederick William Arnold.
The motorcycle
division of Schwinn took up all the creative energies of the company, and the bicycle
division limped along barely surviving its plight. But by purchasing new bicycle companies
during industry consolidation, intentional or not, Schwinn was positioning
itself for the next phase of its bicycle business. For over a decade, the Schwinn has set the standard as the cycle studio workhorse. The sturdy steel frame, heavy perimeter weighted flywheel, traditional chain drive, and direct pressure brake give this bike the strength to keep it moving ride after ride.