Have you guys read, "No Hands" The rise and fall of Schwinn?

Get your local library to buy it if they don't have it. It is the story of why we don't make much anymore.

I own a copy and it's a good read. It's a shame that what was a once great family owned company went out of business and the name is now owned by some cheap bike manufacturer...

I read it, Frank w. Schwinn was the man.

It's a decent read. A lot of what is in the book could be said of American industry in general as it declined in the face of rising imports. Schwinn was very innovative early on, but they eventually came to rely on anti-competitive practices and lobbying for tariffs to combat competition from imports, rather than innovating as greatly as previously.

In some ways, it is amazing they lasted as long as they did, given they initially rejected the Sting Ray concept as well as the 10 speed concept. It seems like by the 1960s, the people working with Schwinn in the field were more innovative than HQ. If I remember, a local guy out in CA first came up with the Sting Ray/Krate concept type of bike in response to customizations kids were doing. Guys out in CA also pushed Schwinn on the 10-speed in the 1960s when they started adult touring clubs similar to those in Europe. You can't live like that for too long, and Schwinn HQ missed big when it came to the early days of the mountain bike and building quality touring bikes for adults by the 1970s.

There is an expensive paperback book called Schwinn Sting Ray written by Liz Fried, a GIRL of all things. You guys probaby don't remember what those are. They have these round bumpers in front and they mostly talk on cell phones about dog food or other non-bike related topics while trying to drive. Anyway her mom threw out her old stingray so up and wrote this wonderful color book.

Not sure if the part about expensive is sarcasm but I gave about $15 for the book. Like most of the current reference literature out there it doesn't go very deep and contains errors. Overall a decent book but not for the serious student of Stingrays. V/r Shawn

There is another book called the schwinn phantom yet shows a panther on the cover haha