Hungarian Schwinn S2?

[AS-1]

I don't think I've come across one that looked like that. Is it marked S-2, looks aftermarket? I had a late 80's Cruiser 5 and the rims didn't look like that and they were not marked.

Here's some Hungarian S-2's that I should have bought years ago just for the fun of it.

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A friend of mine had a set of those on an early Phantom that he bought at an estate sale. Do you know the whole story on that rim?

 

[GTs58]

A friend of mine had a set of those on an early Phantom that he bought at an estate sale. Do you know the whole story on that rim?

What rim are you referring to? The topic rim looks like it had some manufacturing malfunction of some kind.

 

[AS-1]

Thanks! I was referring to the pair you pictured in your post #21.

 

[GTs58]

Schwinn was part owner of the Csepel factory in Hungary and after spending loads of money on that factory, not their Chicago factory, they were set up with a new painting system and the tooling for making rims and god knows what else was modernized. They made the Heavy Duty model, Cruisers and other simple models along with those S-2 rims. Chicago was shut down years before this. The balloon Cruisers they made were the same models that Giant was making at the time and the Giant made bikes had aluminum rims while the Hungarian Cruisers had the S-2's. The S-2's were most likely imported for the Dealers also.

 

[mrg]

I was told by a long time Schwinn Dealer that their was a fire at that factory, maybe @Schwinn Sales West can weight in on this thread.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

The Schwinn Cespel Hungary factory made 26" S-2 steel rims. It was a just another Schwinn part number. They shipped them in cardboard tubes with 25 rims per tube. We had these parts shipped inside containers with bicycle shipments into the Rancho Cucamonga warehouse. They (Cespel-Schwinn) always seemed to need to bounce them on the end of the tube and ruin the first couple of rims on each end with flat spots. I sold these rims at vintage bicycle swap meets in the early 1990's. I still have one set of these rims on my Black Phantom rider built up with a red band two speed. They were nice rims, nice chrome, but like Chicago's S2 rims "not perfect". I stopped ordering and selling them because nobody seemed interested in buying "new" S2 rims alone, or I also sold them built into vintage hubs with stainless spokes. These rims were used as O.E. on the "steel rimed" Schwinn cruiser models. They also made some cruiser models with aluminum rims that looked like a 7X Araya style.

I've not ever heard the story of Schwinn shipping tooling from Chicago to Hungary. It's just rolled on a tubing mill, the same as making welded electrical conduit tubing.

If they had a fire at Cespel, it was after Scott Sports Group ended the Schwinn relationship with Cespel. I never heard about a fire at Cespel causing any shipping delays into our warehouses.

John

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Schwinn was part owner of the Csepel factory in Hungary and after spending loads of money on that factory, not their Chicago factory, they were set up with a new painting system and the tooling for making rims and god knows what else was modernized. They made the Heavy Duty model, Cruisers and other simple models along with those S-2 rims. Chicago was shut down years before this. The balloon Cruisers they made were the same models that Giant was making at the time and the Giant made bikes had aluminum rims while the Hungarian Cruisers had the S-2's. The S-2's were most likely imported for the Dealers also.

Schwinn did not spend loads of money on Cespel. They went there because it was CHEAP to buy into a suffering existing bicycle factory. They offered Schwinn a low-cost labor work force. Actually, an ideal situation for a company like Schwinn that had already closed the Chicago factories and needed Schwinn products to sell to their existing dealerships. IMO, the biggest draw on the Schwinn company was having the Schwinn employees stationed there to help with the changeover and start up issues. If I remember correctly Rudy Schwinn was sent to Hungary for the first few years.

How about a little credit. Giant was not only a Schwinn Vendor, but also a Schwinn Competitor in the U.S. market. Schwinn was trying to establish their own proprietary factory supply chain to supply their dealers with Schwinn products. The future was not with Murray or Giant, or even CBC (China Bicycle Company). The new Cespel, and Greenville Schwinn factories were starts. They each built totally different types of the model line. Just like Waterford (steel frames) and CCI Kestral (carbon) built different types of products. They also had Bowflex (in Vancouver, WA), and Frontline (El Toro, CA) that built different types of exerciser products. After 97 years tied to the Chicago factories, and not being able to make product changes quick enough they desired to have these smaller factories that could each focus on a smaller part of the very broad product line. At some point they would have needed another factory to build the profitable fitness line products for the fitness division. If you look into the Powersports industry, they do the exact same thing. Honda assembles Goldwings in Ohio, Kawasaki builds Utility, ATV's, and Jet Ski's in Nebraska, Suzuki builds ATV's in Rome, GA. in an old carpet factory.

So far, the only thing everyone seems to talk about is finished Bicycles. I do not hear much talk about the fact that Schwinn's Sales Distribution Centers were the largest bicycle parts distribution operation in the United States, and likely the world. Not just Schwinn replacement parts but almost every name brand part you could name from streamers and plastic wicker baskets to Campy and Dura Ace parts groups. Clement Sew-ups to the largest Bell Helmet distributor in the nation. Kryptonite Locks were a big dollar accessory for the dealers. We even sold Oakley, before it was a huge brand.

The cruiser models made in the Cespel factory were replacing models previously build by Giant. Unless you go back and check the import duty paperwork of what models and during which months it's going to be very confusing trying to figure out what, where, who, and when the sourcing change was happening. I think we all agree, it was happening, even if we are not certain of the dates today.

Sorry, GT, I'm not just picking on you but in reading all these old threads, I just have to snicker at some of the guessing, and generalized opinions I read about what, or why Schwinn did something.

Schwinn was not perfect, we had our challenges being a very large ship unable to turn quickly, but we also had a very large presence, and did some good things in the industry for a very long time. Many of the old time Schwinn dealers paid off mortgages on large properties by moving Schwinn boxes in their back door and sold bicycles out their front doors. In the last thirty years, since the Schwinn ownership change, I believe you have seen every company make major changes, and some completely change their distribution channels. Not even Scotts Sports Group backed with Sam Zell's money could make it work through dealer distribution. Pacific Cycle's current Schwinn ownership is just milking the brand of the 97 years of the Schwinn family efforts.

Off my soap box,

John

 

[GTs58]

Schwinn did not spend loads of money on Cespel. They went there because it was CHEAP to buy into a suffering existing bicycle factory. They offered Schwinn a low-cost labor work force. Actually, an ideal situation for a company like Schwinn that had already closed the Chicago factories and needed Schwinn products to sell to their existing dealerships. IMO, the biggest draw on the Schwinn company was having the Schwinn employees stationed there to help with the changeover and start up issues. If I remember correctly Rudy Schwinn was sent to Hungary for the first few years.

How about a little credit. Giant was not only a Schwinn Vendor, but also a Schwinn Competitor in the U.S. market. Schwinn was trying to establish their own proprietary factory supply chain to supply their dealers with Schwinn products. The future was not with Murray or Giant, or even CBC (China Bicycle Company). The new Cespel, and Greenville Schwinn factories were starts. They each built totally different types of the model line. Just like Waterford (steel frames) and CCI Kestral (carbon) built different types of products. They also had Bowflex (in Vancouver, WA), and Frontline (El Toro, CA) that built different types of exerciser products. After 97 years tied to the Chicago factories, and not being able to make product changes quick enough they desired to have these smaller factories that could each focus on a smaller part of the very broad product line. At some point they would have needed another factory to build the profitable fitness line products for the fitness division. If you look into the Powersports industry, they do the exact same thing. Honda assembles Goldwings in Ohio, Kawasaki builds Utility, ATV's, and Jet Ski's in Nebraska, Suzuki builds ATV's in Rome, GA. in an old carpet factory.

So far, the only thing everyone seems to talk about is finished Bicycles. I do not hear much talk about the fact that Schwinn's Sales Distribution Centers were the largest bicycle parts distribution operation in the United States, and likely the world. Not just Schwinn replacement parts but almost every name brand part you could name from streamers and plastic wicker baskets to Campy and Dura Ace parts groups. Clement Sew-ups to the largest Bell Helmet distributor in the nation. Kryptonite Locks were a big dollar accessory for the dealers. We even sold Oakley, before it was a huge brand.

The cruiser models made in the Cespel factory were replacing models previously build by Giant. Unless you go back and check the import duty paperwork of what models and during which months it's going to be very confusing trying to figure out what, where, who, and when the sourcing change was happening. I think we all agree, it was happening, even if we are not certain of the dates today.

Sorry, GT, I'm not just picking on you but in reading all these old threads, I just have to snicker at some of the guessing, and generalized opinions I read about what, or why Schwinn did something.

Schwinn was not perfect, we had our challenges being a very large ship unable to turn quickly, but we also had a very large presence, and did some good things in the industry for a very long time. Many of the old time Schwinn dealers paid off mortgages on large properties by moving Schwinn boxes in their back door and sold bicycles out their front doors. In the last thirty years, since the Schwinn ownership change, I believe you have seen every company make major changes, and some completely change their distribution channels. Not even Scotts Sports Group backed with Sam Zell's money could make it work through dealer distribution. Pacific Cycle's current Schwinn ownership is just milking the brand of the 97 years of the Schwinn family efforts.

Off my soap box,

John

There are times when a person has to take the time to figure out what he read is BS or fact. I did not say Schwinn shipped over tooling to Hungary for making the S-2 rims but they most certainly had to acquire new tooling for making those rims. I doubt they made a tubular rim identical to the Schwinn rim prior to Schwinn's involvement with their existing antiquated tooling.

The Cabe is very fortunate to have you here John! With all the misinformation floating around on the internet today along with all the somewhat worthless coffee table books, the true history has been lost. Here's a great example of what we are dealing with today.

 

[Thee]

Schwinn did not spend loads of money on Cespel. They went there because it was CHEAP to buy into a suffering existing bicycle factory. They offered Schwinn a low-cost labor work force. Actually, an ideal situation for a company like Schwinn that had already closed the Chicago factories and needed Schwinn products to sell to their existing dealerships. IMO, the biggest draw on the Schwinn company was having the Schwinn employees stationed there to help with the changeover and start up issues. If I remember correctly Rudy Schwinn was sent to Hungary for the first few years.

How about a little credit. Giant was not only a Schwinn Vendor, but also a Schwinn Competitor in the U.S. market. Schwinn was trying to establish their own proprietary factory supply chain to supply their dealers with Schwinn products. The future was not with Murray or Giant, or even CBC (China Bicycle Company). The new Cespel, and Greenville Schwinn factories were starts. They each built totally different types of the model line. Just like Waterford (steel frames) and CCI Kestral (carbon) built different types of products. They also had Bowflex (in Vancouver, WA), and Frontline (El Toro, CA) that built different types of exerciser products. After 97 years tied to the Chicago factories, and not being able to make product changes quick enough they desired to have these smaller factories that could each focus on a smaller part of the very broad product line. At some point they would have needed another factory to build the profitable fitness line products for the fitness division. If you look into the Powersports industry, they do the exact same thing. Honda assembles Goldwings in Ohio, Kawasaki builds Utility, ATV's, and Jet Ski's in Nebraska, Suzuki builds ATV's in Rome, GA. in an old carpet factory.

So far, the only thing everyone seems to talk about is finished Bicycles. I do not hear much talk about the fact that Schwinn's Sales Distribution Centers were the largest bicycle parts distribution operation in the United States, and likely the world. Not just Schwinn replacement parts but almost every name brand part you could name from streamers and plastic wicker baskets to Campy and Dura Ace parts groups. Clement Sew-ups to the largest Bell Helmet distributor in the nation. Kryptonite Locks were a big dollar accessory for the dealers. We even sold Oakley, before it was a huge brand.

The cruiser models made in the Cespel factory were replacing models previously build by Giant. Unless you go back and check the import duty paperwork of what models and during which months it's going to be very confusing trying to figure out what, where, who, and when the sourcing change was happening. I think we all agree, it was happening, even if we are not certain of the dates today.

Sorry, GT, I'm not just picking on you but in reading all these old threads, I just have to snicker at some of the guessing, and generalized opinions I read about what, or why Schwinn did something.

Schwinn was not perfect, we had our challenges being a very large ship unable to turn quickly, but we also had a very large presence, and did some good things in the industry for a very long time. Many of the old time Schwinn dealers paid off mortgages on large properties by moving Schwinn boxes in their back door and sold bicycles out their front doors. In the last thirty years, since the Schwinn ownership change, I believe you have seen every company make major changes, and some completely change their distribution channels. Not even Scotts Sports Group backed with Sam Zell's money could make it work through dealer distribution. Pacific Cycle's current Schwinn ownership is just milking the brand of the 97 years of the Schwinn family efforts.

Off my soap box,

John

BAM ! Here comes the judge !! Hell Ya !

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

LOL, This is a funny topic in a sick sorta way.

Not many things that are moral, healthy, or legal can get a bunch of old men jacked up and excited! This is like taking "yellow, or blue pills" for bicycle geeks!

I think we all agree on one point, in the last 125 years a lot has been said about Schwinn, their bicycle company, and their family. Some of it is accurate, some of it has been inflated, and a lot of it is just plan inaccurate.

It seems to me that we have a very good opportunity here on the CABE to take the high road and all try our best to offer historically accurate information about our favorite topic SCHWINN. Not many common everyday household products have earned "cult collector status" like some of the early Schwinn models.

We don't need to fluff and puff the facts; Schwinn took many wrong turns. We now benefit from our ability to reflect and be Monday morning armchair quarterbacks. But we still enjoy the vehicle that allowed us as kids our first mobility to escape our parental control. The bicycle gave every one of us warm and fuzzy memories of times past. Just like our first car, first girlfriend, first child, etc. nobody can take that memory away.

I think it's good to ask questions and not believe everything you hear or read. Nothing is wrong with being skeptical because so much has already been disseminated that is just wrong.

GT........I appreciate all of your efforts to monitor the many inaccurate information lists, which only serve to foster more misinformation.

John