When they failed to find what they wanted at Schwinn, they went elsewhere. 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.
They feature contoured joints, thin seatstays with bullet-point tips, and those slightly oversize seat- and downtubes. Their frame geometry includes long chainstays and fork rake, a low bottom bracket shell, a 73 degree seat-tube angle, and a 72 degree head-tube angle, all of which provide a smooth and stable, “sweet handling” ride. With these models Schwinn achieved a nice balance of frame rigidity and smooth handling. Arnold, Schwinn & Company was incorporated in Chicago in 1895, during the boom in bicycle sales of the 1890’s. At that time bicycles were a fashionable but expensive mode of transportation for adults.
The overall value of a Schwinn vintage bike will vary based on its condition, age, and scarcity. Irrespective of their age, most Schwinn cycles in good condition retain their value for a long time. It means that any bicycle more than 50 years old in a good or fair condition is likely to attract interest from other buyers. It also means that old Schwinn bikes before 1975 will be of greater value to collectors than a newer bike. Similarly, if the bike is scarce, such as the 1934 triplet or the Aerocycle, it may be priced in the thousands of dollars on eBay. In late 1997, Questor Partners Fund, led by Jay Alix and Dan Lufkin, purchased huffy mountain bike.
Even the paint colors were the same (remember that the fillet-brazed frames were hung on the general Schwinn painting line). Only the round Schwinn badge, downtube diameter and pointed seatstay tops are visibly different. During the bicycle boom of the 1970’s customers learned to equate lugged frame construction with higher quality. Richard’s Bicycle Book of 1972, a popular title of the day, states emphatically that, “In better bikes the frame is lugged and brazed…” and does not mention any other quality framebuilding method. Customers preferred lugged construction and equated lugless frames with Varsitys and Continentals or, worse, low-quality department-store bicycles. Until the recent rise of quality TIG-welded and composite bicycle frames, most high quality lightweight bicycles used lugs to join their frame tubing.
Without considering its function, purpose or effect, the Court declares this aspect of Schwinn’s program to be per se invalid. It likewise applies the same automatic rule of illegality to strike down Schwinn’s policy of ensuring that franchised dealers do not resell to unfranchised retailers, schwinn bicycles and thus subvert the whole distributional scheme. The company’s next answer to requests for a Schwinn mountain bike was the King Sting and the Sidewinder, inexpensive BMX-derived bicycles fabricated from existing electro-forged frame designs, and using off-the-shelf BMX parts.