1976 Schwinn Heavy Duti

[Misterotis]

The daily production numbers were always adjusted to demand, and OE parts availability. One Million units, divided by 260 working days per year is an average of 3800 bicycles per day during the peak production years.

The Bicycles "were built to the dealer orders". The lead time varied between three to four weeks from the time the order was placed with the Regional Sales Company, then forwarded to the Schwinn Chicago factory before they were built. The dealer received an order confirmation postcard, and the actual production date was never more than a day of two off, early, or late. Tom Griffin was the Sales Manager at SSW in the City of Industry, CA. He collected the orders and tried his best to consolidate them into orders going to the geographic same areas if they were not large enough (LTL) for an entire Truck Trailer, or Rail Car shipment. This service was to help dealers reduce and control their shipping costs. Remember that the Schwinn suggested retail prices were only $3.00 per bicycle higher in Zone 3 (west coast).

Jack Smith was the Chicago factory order manager, and he received the orders from Tom Griffin. Jack's job was to schedule the orders and place them in a shipping rotation. His department personnel looked at the orders and counted how many 24" Varsity frames would be needed "three weeks from today" when that particular dealer order rolled down the assembly line. Yes, they had to know how many Sunset Orange, Kool Lemon, Campus Green 24" Varsity frames were needed on the scheduled production day. Scheduling all of this had to be a monumental task, and it was all done with pen and paper, no laptops and app's like we would do today. They had some screw-ups, but overall, it ran VERY SMOOTH all considering.

My families two Schwinn dealerships were located in the desert of Arizona. We ordered "every Chicago built Schwinn" directly from the factory, because they offered us the option of adding Thorn Resistant inner tubes on a "requested basis" to each order. This saved us having to remove the standard inner tubes and replacing them with Thorn Resistant inner tubes. This option saved us labor and parts cost. We almost never bought a "Chicago Built Schwinn" from the Regional Sales Company because the bikes cost us more, the freight from Los Angles to Phoenix was higher than the Rail Car ($2.40 per bike) freight from Chicago to Phoenix. But the main reason was all of the warehouse bikes had standard tubes that needed to be changed over.

Think about it, in order for Schwinn to fill our factory order, AND offer us the option of having Thorn Resistant tubes in every bicycle they would have to have a huge warehouse with the same bicycle, in the same color, in the same frame size, and the only difference would be Thorn Resistant inner tubes. The only way this would be possible would be to build the bicycles "as ordered" and the tubes substituted. I'm sure a few models were exceptions, like Tandems, Tri Bikes, Unicycles, Cycle Trucks, etc. The main "Chicago Built" bicycles that a dealer ordered, 99% of what a dealer actually sold were "built to order". The box "multi part carbon" shipping label was "the first thing printed", well before the first part of the bicycle was assembled. The bicycle began with the shipping label that showed everything about the bicycle. A 120-9 LE, was a 20" frame size, 27" wheel size, Men's frame, in Kool Lemon color ten speed Varsity. If the number was a 220-9 LE it was the same thing but with the optional chrome fenders installed. The assembly line worker looked at the tag going down the assembly line and hung the correct parts on it. The only reason that production date numbers are even close (axle set, or crank stamps) is that the flow of parts at the assembly line was constant. Nothing set for very long before it was attached to a frame going down the line.

If the factory received an order for the regional warehouse, they might build a couple of hundred Yellow 22" framed Varsity's "all in one row". But these bicycles were handled just like the dealer orders, they came off of the assembly line, went directly into a box, set on a dolly, rolled over to a waiting Rail Car, or Truck Trailer for immediate shipment to SSW City of Industry, SSMW Elk Grove, SSS Atlanta, or SSE in New Jersey. As far as the Schwinn factory was concerned, the Regional Sales Companies were just another customer that they shipped bicycles to. If you saw a photo of a regional warehouse order going down the assembly line, it would give you a very different view of how the order/building/shipping system actually worked. I do believe that used a different, small assembly line for exercisers. The last time I saw the assembly line in operation was about 1959, before the exerciser thing got into full swing, so that's my best recollection.

John

Great information, thank you for taking the time to write this. Was there a separate assembly line for each type, or did Sting Rays, Varsity’s, middleweights etc come down the line in random order?

 

[WillWork4Parts]

The daily production numbers were always adjusted to demand, and OE parts availability. One Million units, divided by 260 working days per year is an average of 3800 bicycles per day during the peak production years.

The Bicycles "were built to the dealer orders". The lead time varied between three to four weeks from the time the order was placed with the Regional Sales Company, then forwarded to the Schwinn Chicago factory before they were built. The dealer received an order confirmation postcard, and the actual production date was never more than a day of two off, early, or late. Tom Griffin was the Sales Manager at SSW in the City of Industry, CA. He collected the orders and tried his best to consolidate them into orders going to the geographic same areas if they were not large enough (LTL) for an entire Truck Trailer, or Rail Car shipment. This service was to help dealers reduce and control their shipping costs. Remember that the Schwinn suggested retail prices were only $3.00 per bicycle higher in Zone 3 (west coast).

Jack Smith was the Chicago factory order manager, and he received the orders from Tom Griffin. Jack's job was to schedule the orders and place them in a shipping rotation. His department personnel looked at the orders and counted how many 24" Varsity frames would be needed "three weeks from today" when that particular dealer order rolled down the assembly line. Yes, they had to know how many Sunset Orange, Kool Lemon, Campus Green 24" Varsity frames were needed on the scheduled production day. Scheduling all of this had to be a monumental task, and it was all done with pen and paper, no laptops and app's like we would do today. They had some screw-ups, but overall, it ran VERY SMOOTH all considering.

My families two Schwinn dealerships were located in the desert of Arizona. We ordered "every Chicago built Schwinn" directly from the factory, because they offered us the option of adding Thorn Resistant inner tubes on a "requested basis" to each order. This saved us having to remove the standard inner tubes and replacing them with Thorn Resistant inner tubes. This option saved us labor and parts cost. We almost never bought a "Chicago Built Schwinn" from the Regional Sales Company because the bikes cost us more, the freight from Los Angles to Phoenix was higher than the Rail Car ($2.40 per bike) freight from Chicago to Phoenix. But the main reason was all of the warehouse bikes had standard tubes that needed to be changed over.

Think about it, in order for Schwinn to fill our factory order, AND offer us the option of having Thorn Resistant tubes in every bicycle they would have to have a huge warehouse with the same bicycle, in the same color, in the same frame size, and the only difference would be Thorn Resistant inner tubes. The only way this would be possible would be to build the bicycles "as ordered" and the tubes substituted. I'm sure a few models were exceptions, like Tandems, Tri Bikes, Unicycles, Cycle Trucks, etc. The main "Chicago Built" bicycles that a dealer ordered, 99% of what a dealer actually sold were "built to order". The box "multi part carbon" shipping label was "the first thing printed", well before the first part of the bicycle was assembled. The bicycle began with the shipping label that showed everything about the bicycle. A 120-9 LE, was a 20" frame size, 27" wheel size, Men's frame, in Kool Lemon color ten speed Varsity. If the number was a 220-9 LE it was the same thing but with the optional chrome fenders installed. The assembly line worker looked at the tag going down the assembly line and hung the correct parts on it. The only reason that production date numbers are even close (axle set, or crank stamps) is that the flow of parts at the assembly line was constant. Nothing set for very long before it was attached to a frame going down the line.

If the factory received an order for the regional warehouse, they might build a couple of hundred Yellow 22" framed Varsity's "all in one row". But these bicycles were handled just like the dealer orders, they came off of the assembly line, went directly into a box, set on a dolly, rolled over to a waiting Rail Car, or Truck Trailer for immediate shipment to SSW City of Industry, SSMW Elk Grove, SSS Atlanta, or SSE in New Jersey. As far as the Schwinn factory was concerned, the Regional Sales Companies were just another customer that they shipped bicycles to. If you saw a photo of a regional warehouse order going down the assembly line, it would give you a very different view of how the order/building/shipping system actually worked. I do believe that used a different, small assembly line for exercisers. The last time I saw the assembly line in operation was about 1959, before the exerciser thing got into full swing, so that's my best recollection.

John

Speaking of 1959, assembly lines, and documentation.... I came across this in this new to me catalog with illustrations only. I actually bought it in a lot of catalogs and thought I took a photo, but can't find it, so here is a picture stolen from eBay.

This was "Modern" for 59, but I have a feeling that production had ramped up and things had changed significantly by almost 20 years later.

 

[koolbikes]

The daily production numbers were always adjusted to demand, and OE parts availability. One Million units, divided by 260 working days per year is an average of 3800 bicycles per day during the peak production years.

The Bicycles "were built to the dealer orders". The lead time varied between three to four weeks from the time the order was placed with the Regional Sales Company, then forwarded to the Schwinn Chicago factory before they were built. The dealer received an order confirmation postcard, and the actual production date was never more than a day of two off, early, or late. Tom Griffin was the Sales Manager at SSW in the City of Industry, CA. He collected the orders and tried his best to consolidate them into orders going to the geographic same areas if they were not large enough (LTL) for an entire Truck Trailer, or Rail Car shipment. This service was to help dealers reduce and control their shipping costs. Remember that the Schwinn suggested retail prices were only $3.00 per bicycle higher in Zone 3 (west coast).

Jack Smith was the Chicago factory order manager, and he received the orders from Tom Griffin. Jack's job was to schedule the orders and place them in a shipping rotation. His department personnel looked at the orders and counted how many 24" Varsity frames would be needed "three weeks from today" when that particular dealer order rolled down the assembly line. Yes, they had to know how many Sunset Orange, Kool Lemon, Campus Green 24" Varsity frames were needed on the scheduled production day. Scheduling all of this had to be a monumental task, and it was all done with pen and paper, no laptops and app's like we would do today. They had some screw-ups, but overall, it ran VERY SMOOTH all considering.

My families two Schwinn dealerships were located in the desert of Arizona. We ordered "every Chicago built Schwinn" directly from the factory, because they offered us the option of adding Thorn Resistant inner tubes on a "requested basis" to each order. This saved us having to remove the standard inner tubes and replacing them with Thorn Resistant inner tubes. This option saved us labor and parts cost. We almost never bought a "Chicago Built Schwinn" from the Regional Sales Company because the bikes cost us more, the freight from Los Angles to Phoenix was higher than the Rail Car ($2.40 per bike) freight from Chicago to Phoenix. But the main reason was all of the warehouse bikes had standard tubes that needed to be changed over.

Think about it, in order for Schwinn to fill our factory order, AND offer us the option of having Thorn Resistant tubes in every bicycle they would have to have a huge warehouse with the same bicycle, in the same color, in the same frame size, and the only difference would be Thorn Resistant inner tubes. The only way this would be possible would be to build the bicycles "as ordered" and the tubes substituted. I'm sure a few models were exceptions, like Tandems, Tri Bikes, Unicycles, Cycle Trucks, etc. The main "Chicago Built" bicycles that a dealer ordered, 99% of what a dealer actually sold were "built to order". The box "multi part carbon" shipping label was "the first thing printed", well before the first part of the bicycle was assembled. The bicycle began with the shipping label that showed everything about the bicycle. A 120-9 LE, was a 20" frame size, 27" wheel size, Men's frame, in Kool Lemon color ten speed Varsity. If the number was a 220-9 LE it was the same thing but with the optional chrome fenders installed. The assembly line worker looked at the tag going down the assembly line and hung the correct parts on it. The only reason that production date numbers are even close (axle set, or crank stamps) is that the flow of parts at the assembly line was constant. Nothing set for very long before it was attached to a frame going down the line.

If the factory received an order for the regional warehouse, they might build a couple of hundred Yellow 22" framed Varsity's "all in one row". But these bicycles were handled just like the dealer orders, they came off of the assembly line, went directly into a box, set on a dolly, rolled over to a waiting Rail Car, or Truck Trailer for immediate shipment to SSW City of Industry, SSMW Elk Grove, SSS Atlanta, or SSE in New Jersey. As far as the Schwinn factory was concerned, the Regional Sales Companies were just another customer that they shipped bicycles to. If you saw a photo of a regional warehouse order going down the assembly line, it would give you a very different view of how the order/building/shipping system actually worked. I do believe that used a different, small assembly line for exercisers. The last time I saw the assembly line in operation was about 1959, before the exerciser thing got into full swing, so that's my best recollection.

John

Once again, some priceless information!
I have a question ... The question is about when the Schwinn consumer brochures were issued?
I just talked with a retired Schwinn bicycle shop owner today and he told me that the "New" model bicycles would be introduced in the Fall through correspondence or conventions for them to order for the upcoming year. He stated that they would have some new model bicycles on the showroom floor before they would get the new year catalogs, which was usually Feb./Mar. in time for the Spring / Summer riding season.
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated?

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Once again, some priceless information!
I have a question ... The question is about when the Schwinn consumer brochures were issued?
I just talked with a retired Schwinn bicycle shop owner today and he told me that the "New" model bicycles would be introduced in the Fall through correspondence or conventions for them to order for the upcoming year. He stated that they would have some new model bicycles on the showroom floor before they would get the new year catalogs, which was usually Feb./Mar. in time for the Spring / Summer riding season.
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated?

I think we are saying the same thing in a different view.

Dealers "wanted to place their factory orders" around Schwinn's annual special dating periods. You had Spring Dating, Back to School, and Christmas Dating. I forget all of the terms, but they basically received either an extended time period before the invoice was due, or if the invoice was paid early, the dealer received "early anticipation discounts" for every 30 day early pay period. Dealers viewed earning an early pay discount was "easy money" that they did not have to do any work to make, just pay their bills.

Schwinn viewed the dating programs as a way to smooth out the orders and spread them out. There was no way that Schwinn could build enough bicycles in a 30-day period to supply the demand of bicycles in the Midwest in April. Dealers could not even build the bicycles fast enough to supply the customer Spring demand. So, with an extended dating period, dealers could order several month's needs, the dealers all had built very large stores with large basements or second stories to store these large shipments. It also helped the dealers to keep key employees on staff during the slow winter months by "prebuilding" bicycles. They were fully assembled and adjusted, with only the handlebars turned, and the bicycle hung up by the wheel on a hook. But the most important reason was it allowed the Schwinn factory to run at a much easier to manage steady speed. A factory is like a aircraft carrier, not a ski boat that can make sharp quick changes. So the special dating periods helped the dealers, the dealer employees, and they help Schwinn by running at a steadier production line speed year around.

Schwinn was sensitive to the dealer's business management. The best dealers are the ones that can and do "pay their bills". Many states had an inventory tax that the dealer had to pay each year. Obviously, you want to physically count, and pay your inventory tax at the lowest point in the year. For example in Arizona we counted out inventory on January 1st each year. Being cheap, we did everything we could to run the inventory down by Christmas, and NOT ORDER ANYTHING before the annual inventory count. In some "cold climate" parts of the country, dealers did not want any orders during January and February.

Schwinn would introduce the new model line by sending out their annual dealer binder. It would have all the new models, the specifications, and colors that would be available. In time, the binder also had advertising mats the dealer could use in their local newsprint advertising. It explained how the Co-op advertising program worked, and other dealer promotions, etc. The dealer binder was the first knowledge a dealer had of the new models for the year. It was sent out in late in the year announcing the new years models. As a dealer, I cannot remember getting the new consumer catalogs before maybe March. The dealer had to order the catalogs in bundles of 250 minimum, and their cost was 25 cents per catalog. In time, Schwinn broke up the model sales year so you were not ordering the bicycles by the calendar year, but something like three or four times each year they announced a new model segment "order period" for one model segment. This was easier to manage for the product managers that worked year around and spread out the workload. It also worked better for the dealers because they were placing orders closer to the time they would be actually selling the bicycles and helped them manage their inventory.

It's very possible for dealers to have the new bicycles on their showroom floor before they received their new consumer catalogs. It all depends on when they placed their bicycle orders for shipments, and when they placed their consumer catalogs on order with their RDC after they became available. The catalogs were shipped to the RDC from the printer, and for the most part the RDC's stocked the catalogs that corresponded to their Pricing Zone. For SSW we stocked Zone 3 retail priced catalogs, which showed prices $3.00 per unit higher to help offset the additional dealer freight costs.

John

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Speaking of 1959, assembly lines, and documentation.... I came across this in this new to me catalog with illustrations only. I actually bought it in a lot of catalogs and thought I took a photo, but can't find it, so here is a picture stolen from eBay.

View attachment 2087971
This was "Modern" for 59, but I have a feeling that production had ramped up and things had changed significantly by almost 20 years later.

That was in a Schwinn Comic Book. That is the assembly line in a basic form.

John

 

[GTs58]

It is not speculation. The catalogs were printed, distributed to the dealers, then to the customers. All of this took time, so it only stands to reason it was done MONTHS before the beginning of the following model year! IE: the start of a 77 catalog was done months before it was issued, and in the shops and the end of the preceding year Nov/Dec. So, once again, for the Spitfire to be in the 77 catalog, it would have already been on the drawing board for production in 76 before those other bikes that we can't mention were allegedly built.........!

View attachment 2087734

View attachment 2087735
[/QUOTE

Just as I knew it would be, your assumption or "speculation" here has been totally blown out of the water.

That's pure speculation. You're guessing by using a customer brochure that you have no idea of when it was compiled, published and distributed.

 

[ozzie]

True, but Schwinn was a well oiled machine. From being part of designing the electro forging machine, bringing in raw steel and shaping into the tubes that were built into frames. Making/stamping rims, chroming, painting, assembling.
There had to be more then throwing a dart at a callender to determine year change. There had to be a window and someone had to know when they wanted them to hit the sales floor.

I believe Murray was electro forging much earlier than Schwinn. My 1941 curved seat mast collegiate has electro forged sections at the head tube, bottom bracket and seat stays.

 

[GTs58]

I believe Murray was electro forging much earlier than Schwinn. My 1941 curved seat mast collegiate has electro forged sections at the head tube, bottom bracket and seat stays.

Schwinn was electro forging in 1940 with their new stamped out rear dropouts. In 1942 they were electro forging the BB bracket shell with the nubs, seat tube to the bottom bracket, the two piece stamped head tubes and then the top and down tubes were EF to the head tube.

 

[ozzie]

Schwinn was electro forging in 1940 with their new stamped out rear dropouts. In 1942 they were electro forging the BB bracket shell with the nubs, seat tube to the bottom bracket, the two piece stamped head tubes and then the top and down tubes were EF to the head tube.

I'm not 100% certain but I believe Murray were still doing it earlier and as early as 1936 with the Mercury pod bikes. Maybe someone with one of those bikes or frames could confirm that. If you look inside the headtube there will be evidence of the 2 sections welded together using the electro forging process. Nothing against Schwinn. Of all my American made balloon tire bike frames, I believe their frames were the best in terms of strength, finish and minimizing weight.

 

[Dannuus]

So when did the Schwinn Factory in OHIO burn down?????? LOL

View attachment 2086775

The Schwinn factory in Ohio burned down about the same time these bikes became rare and worth 600- 800 dollars!