[4] Ignaz Schwinn was born in Hardheim, Baden, Germany, in 1860 and worked on two-wheeled ancestors of the modern bicycle that appeared in 19th century Europe.

[11] The postwar appearance of imported "English racers" (actually three-speed "sport" roadsters from Great Britain and West Germany) found a ready market among United States buyers seeking bicycles for exercise and recreation in the suburbs.

[14] The administration noted that the United States industry offered no direct competition in this category, and that lightweight bikes competed only indirectly with balloon-tire or cruiser bicycles.

Since Schwinn could decide who got their bikes and who didn't, the company rewarded the highest volume dealers with location exclusivity, as well as mandating service standards and layouts.

[19] In a ten-year legal battle, many of Schwinn's practices were upheld by the courts: judges ruled they had the right to have their bicycles sold by retailers equipped to service the bikes as well as sell them.

[20] Though the Arnold decision would be essentially overturned in later rulings, the company stopped working solely through independent local distributors and constructed four regional warehouses from which bicycles would — legally — be sent to shops.

While this solved the problem of unfair trade practice with the courts, the new warehouses and distribution system cost millions of dollars at a time of rising competition from foreign manufacturers.

The Twinn used a straight rear seat tube and an idler sprocket to adjust the timing chain tension, typically found on low-priced tandems.

In 1969, the Paramount tandem was introduced, returning to fillet-brazed, seamless chromoly tubing and an eccentric front bottom bracket chain adjustment system.

From 1989 through 1992, Schwinn offered a tandem called the Duo Sport, which used a lugged frame built with oversized tubing in Japan and equipped with quality, mid-range components.

In 1962, Schwinn's designer Al Fritz heard about a new youth trend centered in California for retrofitting bicycles with the accoutrements of motorcycles customized in the "bobber" or "chopper" style, including high-rise, "ape-hanger" handlebars, and low-rider "banana seats".

As always, the Paramount spared no expense; the bicycles were given high-quality lightweight lugged steel frames using double-butted tubes of Reynolds 531 and fitted with quality European components including Campagnolo derailleurs, hubs, and gears.

The wheel rims were likewise robust, chromed, stamped steel with a unique profile designed to hold the tire bead securely, even if pressure were low or lost.

[29] 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.

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.

Though these met initial dealer resistance as "imports" and were not included in the Schwinn consumer catalog, it was soon realized that the Panasonic and Bridgestone 'Schwinn' bicycles were fully the equal of the American-made versions in quality and performance.

Schwinn also marketed a top-shelf touring model from Panasonic, the World Voyager, lugged with butted Tange chrome-molybdenum alloy tubing, Shimano derailleurs, and SunTour bar-end shifters, a serious challenge to the Paramount series at half the price.

In reality, mass-market French manufacturers such as Peugeot were not infrequently criticized for material and assembly quality — as well as stagnant technology — in their low- and mid-level product lines.

While not as prominent at the winner's podium, Japanese brands such as Fuji and Panasonic offered consistently high quality, reasonable prices, and state-of-the-art-derailleur, crankset, and gearing design.

[36] Schwinn brand loyalty began to suffer as huge numbers of buyers came to retailers asking for the latest sport and racing road bikes from European or Japanese manufacturers.

A few participants began designing and building small numbers of mountain bikes with frames made out of modern butted chrome-molybdenum alloy steel.

When the sport's original inventors demonstrated their new frame design, Schwinn marketing personnel initially discounted the growing popularity of the mountain bike, concluding that it would become a short-lived fad.

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.

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.

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.

This proved to be a major miscalculation, as several new United States startup companies began producing high-quality frames designed from the ground up, and sourced from new, modern plants in Japan and Taiwan using new mass-production technologies such as TIG welding.

[40] Schwinn's new competitors such as Specialized and Fisher MountainBikes were soon selling hundreds of thousands of mountain bikes at competitive prices to eager customers, setting sales records in a market niche that soon grew to enormous proportions.

Both Giant and CBC used the dies, plans, and technological expertise from Schwinn to greatly expand the market share of bicycles made under their own proprietary brands, first in Europe, and later in the United States.

[58] Seeking to increase its brand recognition, Schwinn established additional company-operated shops, a move that alienated existing independent bike retailers in cities where the company stores had opened.

Schwinn also produces the following gear: Helmets & Pads, Pumps, Saddles, Lights, Storage, Extras, Repair, Bike trailers, and Jogging strollers.