Schwinn is probably the best-known vintage USA bicycle company. It was founded in 1895 by German-born Ignaz Schwinn in Chicago. They declared bankruptcy in 1992 and are now owned by Pon Holdings. They are mostly a big box store brand now.

The rise of Schwinn
In the 1950s Schwinn decided they would only sell their brand rather than make branded bikes for the department stores. This really helped build the brand as quality above the competition. In 1962 they came out with the Sting-Ray which became an incredibly popular kids bike. The Varsity and Continental became very popular 10 speed bikes with teens and young adults.

Schwinn stumbles
The bicycle boom of the 70s started bringing in lots of lightweight road bike competition. Raleigh and other brands from Europe had much lighter 10 speed offerings, lightweight bikes also started coming from Japan. These were bicycle…
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