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Schwinn Indoor Cycles Schwinn Carbon Blue Indoor Bikes
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. By 1990, other United States bicycle companies with reputations for excellence in design such as Trek, Specialized, and Cannondale had cut further into Schwinn's market. Unable to produce bicycles in the United States at a competitive cost, by the end of 1991 Schwinn was sourcing its bicycles from overseas manufacturers. This in turn led to further inroads by domestic and foreign competitors. Faced with a downward sales spiral, Schwinn went into bankruptcy in 1992.[59] The company and name were bought by the Zell/Chilmark Fund, an investment group, in 1993. The Paramount was never the most profitable product for thecompany but it firmly engraved the Schwinn name into the annals of bicyclehistory. One goal of the Paramount line was to market the Schwinn brand as producingbicycles of the highest quality. This strategy would succeed and the Schwinn Paramountwould become part of Schwinn's enduring legacy for quality and innovation untilthe company’s bankruptcy in 1993. Most of Schwinn’screative energy from 1910 through 1930 went into producing a well-respectedbrand of motorcycle called the Excelsior. In 1917, Schwinn purchased HendersonMotorcycle Company from its owners. With the motorcycles in the rearview mirror, FrankSchwinn took on the difficult task of reinventing what remained of the bicycle business.The company would eventually be renamed the Schwinn Bicycle Company. With hisbackground as an innovative motorcycle engineer, he set his eyes on developing futuristicnew bicycle products geared towards children. The stage was set for an era of Schwinncreativity and innovation that would catapult the company into a dominant positionin the bicycle industry. The bicycle industry entered the doldrums at the turn of the20th Century. Adult ridership of bicycles plummeted as people’sattention turned to motorized transportation. The Wright Brothers started ignoringtheir bike shop in favor of flying machines. Henry Ford rode a bicycle to afactory where he manufactured his first motorcar that looked like two bicycles joinedtogether. He and others like him working on the first cars would sound thedeath knell for the 1890s adult bicycle boom. They sold a bunch of Paramount bikes, but even they dropped off. They picked up Trek, and BMX was still popular and they picked up more of the popular brands of the time. At one time, Schwinnemployed 2,000 people in its Chicago factory. That’s about the number of bikesthat Waterford now produces in a year. The factory that produced the iconic Schwinn Paramount racing bikes has solidified its place near the top of the US bicycle manufacturing industry. The good Schwinn bikes were the Paramount…that model lineup was spun into a separate company called Waterford.