Klunker V huh??

[Schwinn Sales West]

Schwinn's Al Fritz had a eye on trends and when kids in socal were customizing their 20"ers he went to management with the idea, they thought he was crazy but we know how that went!, wonder how the figured out the StingRay name? maybe GM approved thinking kids would grow up and buy their cars! but wonder did Schwinn have to pay GM?, a few yrs later in the same area there were beach cruisers and then the norcal/Marin Clunkers ( more name troubles ) and as said Schwinn lost it's way after that!

Al Fritz's name is often credited for the Sting Ray, but it was directly handed to him by Sig Mork. Sig, was then a regional manager for Schwinn for the factory in the southwest. He called on Southern California and Arizona, and Adrian Thom covered Northern California and the PNW. Sig saw the So Cal bicycle dealers that he was calling on start to sell special accessory parts. Parts like Polo Seats, Sissy Bars, and Riser handlebars. These parts were being installed on 20" juvenile bikes. Being a So Cal based guy Sig saw the trend. He stuck a bike together with these parts on it and carried it to Chicago. Sig and Al had always been tight friends. They put "their balls" on the table and told Ray Burch VP of marketing they could sell all the Sting Ray bikes he could produce. I'm certain a bottle of Good Scotch was involved. Ray built the model but was cautious in forecasting until he quickly saw the "Re-Orders" from the dealers. Schwinn was limited in Sting Ray production only by the amount of 20" tires, and Polo seats they could source.

Sig Mork, went on to be the first General Manager at Schwinn Sales West in City of Industry, CA. This was the Schwinn Sales company that replaced Harry Wilson Sales Agency. Sig Mork hired me in 1978, and relocated me to Sacramento, CA as a new sales rep for the central valley.

Dealers that normally sold a couple hundred bicycles each year were placing full box car shipments for nothing but "one model".....the Sting Ray. It was just the right product for the time. Every kid had to have one.

Nothing is ever really new, it just evolves. It's the people and the companies that have a vision of how a market trend can be expanded into a product and capitalized for a profit. Somewhere along the way somebody needs to put "their balls" on the table to make it happen.

I will give credit to Al Fritz for his support for the Schwinn Airdyne exerciser which saved the company for several years at the end.

John

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

I think Schwinn created trends like Stingrays & Klunkers/Beach Cruisers in the mainstream industry by following local treads ( especially Calif trends ) but were slow on the BMX & Mt bike but really lost it on the business/labor end of it.

Schwinn did not create the trends. They simply read the trends, then built a product, and capitalized on it. They did good on the Sting Ray and the Beach Cruiser trends.

Schwinn's marketing and legal management was convinced that BMX and Mountain Bikes were a huge liability to the company and to dealers. Ray Burch made a lot of money for the Schwinn family and was highly respected for many years. He's the guy that gave you guys Whizzer's, so he was not unaware of trends. But he dragged Schwinn's feet on not making a timely entrance into the BMX and Mountain Bike markets. The west coast sales guys were yelling for products. It was funny, he had his four sales companies selling lots of BMX parts and frame kits. The Roger De Coster bike kit, was a Mongoose (BMX Products) with a oval hole in place of the Mongoose round hole in the head plates. The sales companies were into the BMX market selling parts before Schwinn was fully committed to build competitive bikes. We needed The Sting BMX model at the beginning.

They needed to abandon the Chicago property by the 1960's. The controlling family trust and directors were not in touch with the bicycle business. There only focus was when was the dividend checks being mailed? Edward and Richard worked hard and long, but the rest only rode the wave. The same story has been repeated in many family businesses. The failure is usually in the third generation of family management.

John

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

Not sure how much of this on the Cali Cruisers is accurate.

He built the beach cruiser and sold a lifestyle

Larry McNeely designed the sturdy upright bike for jaunts at Southern California beaches. Can you feel the wind in your hair?

www.marketplace.org

As far as I know there were no infringements with the Klunker 5 and no lawsuits.

Bikes with names that cars had was a popular thing and Huffy had multiple models with car names. No name infringements since the product was not car related.

So, royalties of $100,000.00 divided by .25 per unit equals 400,000 Schwinn Cruiser's. Schwinn never sold 400,000 cruisers in a year. Yes we sold a bunch, but not 400,000 in a year. I call BS. The guy is blowing smoke.

Why would Schwinn offer to pay anything at all? They had been selling a upright seating position bicycle, with comfort balloon tires, since the 1930's.

Cease and desist orders happen all the time on product names. Companies change the product name and continue on selling; it happens every day. Money does not change hands, the offending company stops selling using that name, they make a change, and continue. The only people who are paid any money are the lawyers that argue the position for each litigator.

Can't you guys see through some of this smoke and BS?

GT is correct, a model name trademark only applies to the same kind of product. A Sting Ray bicycle is not an infringement on a Sting Ray automobile. Same name, but different class of product. It gets sticky when you get to very generic names (like car, bicycle, motorcycle) because they are so broad. The name Cruiser would be a broad generic name to me, and the lawyers would be involved, I'm sure. Every company that I have ever worked for has struggled with new product names. Look at some of the problem names GM has had on their vehicles. Sometimes a product name sounds great until you understand it has a different meaning in a different language.
Then you have issues of the same name with other companies.

John

 

[J-wagon]

@Schwinn Sales West curious any insight into why Klunker 5 name did not stick around changed to Spitfire 5. Perhaps merely a marketing brand change Spitfire better sounding descriptive name for sales? Or been floated change influenced by potential litigation NorCal klunker folks.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

@Schwinn Sales West curious any insight into why Klunker 5 name did not stick around changed to Spitfire 5. Perhaps merely a marketing brand change Spitfire better sounding descriptive name for sales? Or been floated change influenced by potential litigation NorCal klunker folks.

The short answer is I really don't know, or if I did, I do not now remember. Those decisions were made in Chicago, not in the field by people with a higher Pay Grade.

At the end of the day, it's if the product meets the consumer's needs and wants. It did not matter if Schwinn called their cruiser a Motobike, a Wasp, a plain old Cruiser, a California Cruiser, or a Klunker, or some other variation. The public just wanted a basic bike balloon tire, that was simple, durable, and easy to pedal down the Beach Strand. The model's name on a chainguard was not important, just as long as it was "a Schwinn" brand.

John

 

[Xlobsterman]

The short answer is I really don't know, or if I did, I do not now remember. Those decisions were made in Chicago, not in the field by people with a higher Pay Grade.

At the end of the day, it's if the product meets the consumer's needs and wants. It did not matter if Schwinn called their cruiser a Motobike, a Wasp, a plain old Cruiser, a California Cruiser, or a Klunker, or some other variation. The public just wanted a basic bike balloon tire, that was simple, durable, and easy to pedal down the Beach Strand. The model's name on a chainguard was not important, just as long as it was "a Schwinn" brand.

John

That is correct John. Back in the day when I was selling them, most people referred to them as a "Strand Cruiser" regardless of what name was on the chainguard, and I would imagine over 90% of them that we sold were used just for that, "Cruisin the Strand" at the beaches in our area!

 

[mrg]

I was told by Schwinn dealers ( back in the day ) that both California Cruiser and Klunker names had to be changed because trade mark infringement and Schwinn sent out new guards with the fallback name that they already owned "Spitfire" to swap on unsold bikes and maybe even swap on some sold ones.

 

[Xlobsterman]

I was told by Schwinn dealers ( back in the day ) that both California Cruiser and Klunker names had to be changed because trade mark infringement and Schwinn sent out new guards with the fallback name that they already owned "Spitfire" to swap on unsold bikes and maybe even swap on some sold ones.

That's the story as it has been told. Maybe someday we will see an old Schwinn reporter article that actually mentions it to confirm it?

 

[mrg]

I actually saw a old Schwinn dealer yesterday at the swap that use to restore bikes for the Schwinn family and has some cool bikes given to him by the family, I showed him the article from the reporter announcing the Klunker and he thought there was another one about the end of the Klunker name. If anyone has late 78-early 79 I'd like to see!

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

That's the story as it has been told. Maybe someday we will see an old Schwinn reporter article that actually mentions it to confirm it?

I doubt you would find anything in a Reporter.

The place to look would be in a Schwinn Newsflash document.

John