Over the years the Paramount would turn out to become the most successful US racing bike of the 20th century. It was Schwinn’s re-birth the following year that really helped get the iconic brand to where it is today. Their challenge was to play off of Schwinn’s storied past while making the bikes relevant for a new-age consumer. We partner with the most trusted outdoor retailers to simplify booking their gear online.
The Paramount used high-strength chrome-molybdenum steel alloy tubing and expensive brass lug-brazed construction. During the next twenty years, most of the Paramount bikes would be built in limited numbers at a small frame shop headed by Wastyn, in spite of Schwinn’s continued efforts to bring all frame production into the factory. Another problem was Schwinn’s failure to design and market its bicycles to specific, identifiable buyers, especially the growing number of cyclists interested in road racing or touring. Instead, most Schwinn derailleur bikes were marketed to the general leisure market, equipped with heavy “old timer” accessories such as kickstands that cycling aficionados had long since abandoned. While the Paramount still sold in limited numbers to this market, the model’s customer base began to age, changing from primarily bike racers to older, wealthier riders looking for the ultimate bicycle. Schwinn sold an impressive 1.5 million bicycles in 1974, but would pay the price for failing to keep up with new developments in bicycle technology and buying trends.
However, Schwinn failed to innovate and adapt to the modern bicycle market. Although their models were favored by slightly older buyers, they weren’t able to find huge success in the growing younger market, which had leaned increasingly towards lightweight and technologically advanced road bikes. After an initial schwinn bikes massive boom in bicycle sales that coincided with the founding of the company, the industry declined. During this period, Schwinn bought up a number of smaller bicycle production companies in order to survive. They then built a small factory in Chicago, which was at that point the center of the bicycle industry.
Unlike its progenitors, the Klunker proved incapable of withstanding hard off-road use, and after an unsuccessful attempt to reintroduce the model as the Spitfire 5, it was dropped from production. Schwinn was soon sponsoring a bicycle racing team headed by Emil Wastyn, who designed the team bikes, and the company competed in six-day racing across the United States with riders such as Jerry Rodman and Russell Allen. In 1938, Frank W. Schwinn officially introduced the Paramount series. Developed from experiences gained in racing, Schwinn established Paramount as their answer to high-end, professional competition bicycles.
In late 1997, Questor Partners Fund, led by Jay Alix and Dan Lufkin, purchased Schwinn Bicycles. Questor/Schwinn later purchased GT Bicycles in 1998 for $8 a share in cash, roughly $80 million. The new company produced a series of well-regarded mountain bikes bearing the Schwinn name, called the Homegrown series.[61] In 2001, Schwinn/GT declared bankruptcy.
The front triangle is made as its own part and then bonded and wrapped to the rear triangle. The ‘semi’ compact frame has an integrated headset and is available in four sizes (small, medium, large and extra large). Schwinn SmartStart bikes are an incredible feat of kid-size engineering. From top to bottom, they’re designed to help kids in motion stay in motion.
As a result, Schwinns became increasingly dated in both styling and technology. By 1957, the Paramount series, once a premier racing bicycle, had atrophied from a lack of attention and modernization. Aside from some new frame lug designs, the designs, methods and tooling were the same as had been used in the 1930s. After a crash-course in new frame-building techniques and derailleur technology, Schwinn introduced an updated Paramount with Reynolds 531 double-butted tubing, Nervex lugsets and bottom bracket shells, as well as Campagnolo derailleur dropouts. The Paramount continued as a limited production model, built in small numbers in a small apportioned area of the old Chicago assembly factory. The new frame and component technology incorporated in the Paramount largely failed to reach Schwinn’s mass-market bicycle lines.
This, combined with the import-dominated market and outdated factory, meant that the company management shifted the majority of production to Japan. Throughout the 1950s Schwinn continued expanding and buying up smaller companies. Schwinn also began producing a lightweight racing-style bike to rival those being imported from Europe, which at the time had become incredibly popular.
In 1980 the production of the Paramount was completely reconsidered, which resulted in a completely new factory in Waterford, Wisconsin. By 1985 Paramount was in full gear, with what became the “standard” model. For medium and smaller sizes, Paramount introduced Columbus SLX tubing.
Mountain bikes were originally based on Schwinn balloon-tired cruiser bicycles fitted with derailleur gears and called “Klunkers”. A few participants began designing and building small numbers of mountain bikes with frames made out of modern butted chrome-molybdenum alloy steel. Using the standard electro-forged cantilever frame, and fitted with five-speed derailleur gears and knobby tires, the Klunker 5 was never heavily marketed, and was not even listed in the Schwinn product catalog.