# New Collegiate to come to Walmart



## BroCraig (May 19, 2020)

Check this out. https://apple.news/AEzedqc-tRaeBEJUXZHSm-Q


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## Jeff54 (May 19, 2020)

$ 997 @ Wally World? That aint gonna be easy. GL wit dat.

Detrot bikes: https://detroitbikes.com/collections/frontpage








BroCraig said:


> Check this out. https://apple.news/AEzedqc-tRaeBEJUXZHSm-Q
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## BroCraig (May 19, 2020)

Jeff54 said:


> $ 997 @ Wally World? That aint gonna be easy. GL wit dat
> 
> 
> Detrot bikes: https://detroitbikes.com/collections/frontpage




Yeah I saw that and thought really? Really?


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## bobcycles (May 19, 2020)

I think the only thing that would ever get me to set foot in a Walmart for any reason would be a guaranteed covid-19 vacine.


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## Jeff54 (May 19, 2020)

bobcycles said:


> I think the only thing that would ever get me to set foot in a Walmart for any reason would be a guaranteed covid-19 vacine.



LOL

And IDK But I looks like PC Cycles is simply setting for this guy to lose big time. Not only is PC Cycles  under cutting every body in store and Schwinn shops but, Giant alias Trek and others made by them in Taiwan are already beating that kind of money and their resell on used trail /city bike is crap. I mean, Detroit needs stimulation, but this don't look like the way to do it.


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## detroitbike (May 19, 2020)

Whats the qualification to say "Made in USA" ? 20 , 30 % ?


  BTW
 I was detroitbike on eBay before this guy existed ! No relation to them...


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## Allrounderco (May 19, 2020)

Assuming that’s true, then the only way to obtain a real bike in those regions is mail order. This might be an opportunity for some there to see a (presumably) decent bike in person. I agree it will be a hard sell, as it won’t have the backing of experienced sales (or final setup) staff. I think a grand can buy a decent bike if you are of average size.  This isn’t a nostalgia bike, and at that price point it’s not going to be especially  high quality. The market is flush with city bikes in the $800 to $1k price point, so it has plenty of competition. I wish them luck. More bikes on the street is never a bad thing.


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## Oilit (May 20, 2020)

detroitbike said:


> Whats the qualification to say "Made in USA" ? 20 , 30 % ?
> 
> 
> BTW
> I was detroitbike on eBay before this guy existed ! No relation to them...



If they make any of it in the U.S. that's more than they've done in the last 20 years. I guess labor in China just isn't as cheap as it used to be.


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## Cooper S. (May 20, 2020)

It’s very interesting how they bombast the schwinn family members in that article but praise the Walton family members...


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## Freqman1 (May 20, 2020)

This has failure written all over it but maybe I’m wrong. V/r Shawn


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## Allrounderco (May 20, 2020)

Oilit said:


> If they make any of it in the U.S. that's more than they've done in the last 20 years. I guess labor in China just isn't as cheap as it used to be.



I would hope that the frame would be Taiwanese at this price point.

Open question: How much does everyone think bikes cost nowadays, anyway? Sure when you walk into a shop, they have sub $500 offerings on the floor. But in my opinion, those are cheap bikes, and anything decent starts at about $1,200 or so. I don't even know if you can get an All City Space Horse for $1,200 anymore, but that's what they cost when I was looking.


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## Cooper S. (May 20, 2020)

It’s gonna end up like the heritage harleys


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## fattyre (May 20, 2020)

Is there a link for the actual bike?   Or did I miss it?


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## Freqman1 (May 20, 2020)

Cooper S. said:


> It’s gonna end up like the heritage harleys View attachment 1197663



Did they actually ever build this POS? V/r Shawn


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## Oilit (May 20, 2020)

Cooper S. said:


> It’s very interesting how they bombast the schwinn family members in that article but praise the Walton family members...



Yeah, I noticed that too. "The family owned business - mismanaged by sons and grandsons of the founder Ignaz Schwinn - was dismembered after bankruptcy in 1993 by ....." So they lumped Frank Schwinn right in with the grandsons despite the fact that he led Schwinn from the '30's into the early '60's, which were probably their best years ever. And then they claim that the company was dismembered after the bankruptcy in 1993, although Ed Schwinn had closed the Chicago plants in 1983, 10 years before they went bankrupt, so what exactly was left to dismember? And let's completely ignore the fact that the Scott Sports Group built the Homegrown mountain bikes and the Centennial Phantom in the U.S.
I'd say the author didn't spend much time on fact checking. And from what I've read about Wal-Mart, Mr. Pashak better watch his back.


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## Cooper S. (May 20, 2020)

Freqman1 said:


> Did they actually ever build this POS? V/r Shawn



Good question, next time I’m by the shop I’ll stop in and ask


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## Arfsaidthebee (May 20, 2020)

The 10 replica Harley Davidson bicycles are sold out...



HOME ›1917 HARLEY DAVIDSON REPLICA BY HERITAGE BICYCLES




*$4,299.00*
*1917 HARLEY DAVIDSON REPLICA BY HERITAGE BICYCLES*

                                                   Default Title - Sold Out                                             
SOLD OUT • $4,299.00 
*THE HARLEY DAVIDSON 7-17, RESURRECTED BY HERITAGE.
FOR PURCHASING INFORMATION, CONTACT THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON MUSEUM.


*


*MADE IN THE USA, DURABLE WITH ATTENTION TO EVERY DETAIL.*





*HANDCRAFTED, ONE AT A TIME, TO ENSURE A QUALITY RIDE THAT LASTS FOR A LIFETIME.*



Here is the new Schwinn Collegiate... @fattyre


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## Oilit (May 20, 2020)

So the new Schwinn is $998.00 and the Harley was $4299.00? I guess putting the Harley name on it explains the $3299.00.


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## Arnold Ziffel (May 20, 2020)

My guess is this NEW Schwinn is overpriced by eight hundred dollars.
A   WALMART  retail  store price  of  $198.00   would be  about  right.
Walmart could still make a good profit on such a product at the $198  everyday price.
Lets face it,  it does not take much in the way of manufacturing costs, to build a good bicycle in mainland China such that it can be manufactured and  transported to the US from China, and then distributed to each of thousands of Walmart stores, and then fully assembled by contracted assemblers hired to assemble bicycles on the sales floor-------------------------------------all this such that there is still a decent profit margin on that $198 everyday  fully assembled price.        My guess is that WALMART would still make a minimal profit on such a bicycle if they were to sell it for $137.

Chinese factories are much more advanced than American factories that built bicycles during the late 20th Century.
Bicycles are  simple.
Now,  can you  have  the same mammoth factory pumping out different bikes?  Certainly.      I'd  imagine that you could have  the lesser skilled greenhorns build the bikes for certain purchase order-contracts....................they would build them at break-neck speed with lesser skilled greenhorn new hires who would likely have a  "production" incentive to do everything faster than one would run a production line if aiming for cosmetically perfect welds and  near exact tolerances.       I am amazed that the Chinese factories do get high quality paintwork and very good welds and decent tolerances given that they really churn this stuff out.      I guess Chinese Tony has better computer controlled equipment that just didn't exist thirty years ago.    Chinese Tony can probably after just being employed for a week,  can  exceed the build quantity and build quality of American Tony who may have had twenty-five years of experience building bicycles from the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, and early 1980's.       Computer controlled equipment that is so precise and fast that it brings production costs down and makes quality control fantastic.    You can then factor the low wages that newly hired greenhorn Chinese Tony might make.................. .............the difference is the CNC equipment has so much precision, that it does not require someone with of years of experience to produce something with a high level of craftsmanship.
Walmart has an economy of scale that no other company can really match.    Walmart has efficiencies in their superior inventory tracking, which became massively apparent nearly thirty years ago when NCR developed a computerized inventory system for Walmart that tracked everything from receiving products ordered from vendors to the customer checkout...................................nobody else had anything so advanced and accurate,  which gave Walmart massive cost effeciencies over everyone in the retail industry.         They became the giant because they could now out price everyone on earth.     They then proceeded to slaughter everyone else in the industry  as they could build new stores and move into areas that were then and now,  where Kmart, which was the #1 retailer until the early 1990's had old stores,  that were built in the 1960's and 1970's and 80's but now those areas were outdated retail locations----------Kmart could no longer compete due to the cost efficiencies of Walmart's inventory state of the art computer system--------------everybody else in Retail was in the same boat   as   Walmart  became the Big Dog with the cost advantage.

Well, as anyone likely can guess that as the Big Dog in the industry for just over 25 years now,  Walmart  can likely,  I would guess,  can use that Walmart  "Big Dog" status  to get  vendors and suppliers  to  as  the old saying of  "RUN WITH THE BIG DOG, OR STAY ON THE PORCH!".
Well,  my guess is that Walmart has negotiating might  which can  influence suppliers to do it at the price and quantity that Walmart desires, -or- else face the prospect of staying on the porch  or  other less influential/prosperous retail chains etc.

Too often,  people  rage  against  Walmart  for this reason or that reason,   but  I believe that if it had not been Walmart,  it certainly would have been some other company  doing  exactly the same thing.
Yes,  there are certainly things that could be done better-- one thing I see is the large number of undervalued folks who toil in retail with no or very limited healthcare benefits but  that is a discussion matter for a different forum,  and certainly is not a problem only to Walmart but throughout the major retail players.    

I cannot see that NEW Collegiate  as anything but a FLOP  at  that ridiculous $998 price tag________-it needs to be a $198 everyday price!


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## rollfaster (May 21, 2020)

I’ll stick to my vintage Schwinns.


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## bikemonkey (May 21, 2020)

Reality - almost every bicycle shop in the US is selling china bikes...there are china bikes and then there are _china_ bikes. My son visited China a couple of times  about 20 years ago for business and the industrial ring structure he told me about was quite fascinating.

I have a decent market selling nice Chicago Schwinn Collegiates and Suburbans in the $200/300 price range.


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## Oilit (May 21, 2020)

bikemonkey said:


> Reality - almost every bicycle shop in the US is selling china bikes...there are china bikes and then there are _china_ bikes. My son visited China a couple of times  about 20 years ago for business and the industrial ring structure he told me about was quite fascinating.
> 
> I have a decent market selling nice Chicago Schwinn Collegiates and Suburbans in the $200/300 price range.



That sounds right. I read somewhere that the problems Schwinn faced in the '80's and 90's weren't all down to foreign competition, because companies like Trek and Specialized were building high-end bikes in the U.S. and doing well. But after congress passed NAFTA (Clinton) and CAFTA (G. W. Bush), I saw the results for myself. Going offshore became a matter of economic necessity, because if you didn't, your competitors would and cut your throat on labor costs. For the last 20 years, anybody selling new bikes has sold Chinese, because there wasn't anything else. There are a few specialists building hand-made machines to order, but for most people buying a new bike means choosing between a high-end Chinese (Trek or Giant or Specialized) or a low-end Chinese (Wal-Mart) bike.
One reason I like old bikes is that good new bikes are a lot of money, while you can find old bikes that are good and get them cheap. A couple of weeks ago I picked up the bike in this thread:








						Oct 1953 Jaguar | All Things Schwinn
					

I guess this is probably considered a '54 missing the Rocket Ray but the rest of it seems to be there and correct as far as I can tell. @Two wheel toyz @Oilit V/r Shawn




					thecabe.com
				



And I didn't get it cheap, but it was still significantly less than the new Collegiate, and a whole HELLUVALOT less than the "Harley". Given that kind of choice, there's no choice.


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## Cooper S. (May 21, 2020)

Honestly it doesn’t look that bad for a new hybrid. They’d sell the poop out of them in the 350-500 price range. Looks pretty similarly equipped to bikes in that range but can’t be for sure until a specs list is posted


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## schwinnlax (May 21, 2020)

We have two (yes TWO) bike builders here in La Crosse, WI: Wyatt bikes and Blue Steel bikes.  Wyatt sources frames from wherever he can get them.  Toured there once, and he said he’d like to get American made frames, but can’t at any price that makes sense.  Blue Steel is a custom bike builder.  His bikes start at $1400.

So, I guess the assumption is that Detroit bikes is going to source the new Collegiate offshore rather than make them in Detroit?  I assume so too at that MSRP.  However, looking at the picture, that bike is nothing special.  They couldn’t even put a chain guard on!  

The problem I run into with selling a refurbished Chicago Schwinn is that I know the bike is superior to any big box or low end LBS bike, but the general public does not.  The general public would rather spend $500 on the bottom bike at an LBS than a totally refurbished Chicago Schwinn at $200.

Stopped at the LBS yesterday to get some parts.  They literally had a handful of bikes on the floor compared to at least 50 or so they would normally have.  I asked about the market for used bikes since they were essentially sold out of new ones.  He said people aren’t asking about used when they see there are no new ones.  At this point they are just selling pre-ordered new bikes.


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## Xlobsterman (May 22, 2020)

Some of you need to go back and reread the article, and specifically the 3rd paragraph! These bikes will not be sold in the stores, but "exclusively" on Walmart.com.

Quote: "The new Collegiate—based on the 1965 model—will be sold exclusively via Walmart.com"


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