Schwinn King Sting and Sidewinder!???

[Xlobsterman]

I believe the Sidewinders were Chestnut, not Sierra Brown (the other "earlier" brown). I would question that as a catalog error. If I were energetic, I would go look that up in the original salesman catalogs which have all of the "corrections, hand written".

John

So, is there any difference between the Chestnut, and the Spicy Chestnut?

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

So, is there any difference between the Chestnut, and the Spicy Chestnut?

No, just sexy marketing lingo.

John

 

[AS-1]

I believe the Sidewinders were Chestnut, not Sierra Brown (the other "earlier" brown). I would question that as a catalog error. If I were energetic, I would go look that up in the original salesman catalogs which have all of the "corrections, hand written".

John

I'll loan you Jan's wheelchair. She won't mind.

 

[AS-1]

 

[Xlobsterman]

No, just sexy marketing lingo.

John

So that being said, the "Sierra Brown" color name for the 1982 Sidewinder could have been just a different way to market the same color on that bike for that model year using the same theoretical sexy marketing lingo? Since mountain biking was born near the famous "Sierra Nevada Mountains" in California!

 

[Xlobsterman]

View attachment 1980457

That pic is from an 83 catalog, and not for an 82 model.

Here is the 82 dealer catalog page as I posted on the first page of this message thread.

Here is an 84 catalog pic with Chestnut listed.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

So that being said, the "Sierra Brown" color name for the 1982 Sidewinder could have been just a different way to market the same color on that bike for that model year using the same theoretical sexy marketing lingo? Since mountain biking was born near the famous "Sierra Nevada Mountains" in California!

View attachment 1980578

In 1982, I lived and worked in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Well actually at the base of the mountains in the bedroom community of Roseville, just outside of Sacramento, CA. Schwinn had three District Salesman working in Northern California. Bob Lambrose covered the North Bay to Oregon area. Jim Burrus covered the South and East Bay areas down to Gilroy. And I covered the Central Valley's 300 miles from Fresno to Redding and over to Reno/Tahoe up to Susanville. The Schwinn Dealers in this geographic area lived and breathed Mountain Bike from it's very beginnings. As salesmen were heard every day from our dealers "what Schwinn should be doing". The bicycles pictured above show how confused the Schwinn Product Management Department was about the subject and how to plan new models to fill the dealer needs. They could not understand that you cannot just take a Varsity frame, dress it with various parts, and have a BMX Cruiser, a Five Speed, and a Ten-Speed Mountain Bike. The three of us sent many requests, many photos, and many event reports into Chicago managers documenting the growth and trend changes in the new activity. It fell on deft ears. Bob Lambrose was by far the most into the Mountain Bike scene, Schwinn would have been smart to promote him to a "Mountain Bike" Product Management position based out of his home.

Just look at the Mountain Bike models pictured in the 1984 catalog, steel rims "that don't stop", MX1000 side pull (borrowed from BMX) brakes, and heavy gum wall beach cruiser tires, YUK! Schwinn had the ability, had the sales distribution, the product purchasing power, but would not take the trend seriously. This is after they rode the Sting Ray fad, then the Ten Speed fad all the way to the bank, but ignored the BMX and Mountain Bike activities.

The Sierra Brown color had been around for many years in the Schwinn line. It went back into the 1960's on Exercisers, adult Town and Country Tri Bikes, even the 1967-8-9 Schwinn Run-A-Bout fold up bikes came in Sierra Brown. IMO, it was just a color name, it had nothing to do with the geography of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In defense, it's lots easier to look back today and see exactly where wrong turns were made. Hindsight is always Crystle Clear.

John

 

[Oilit]

In 1982, I lived and worked in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Well actually at the base of the mountains in the bedroom community of Roseville, just outside of Sacramento, CA. Schwinn had three District Salesman working in Northern California. Bob Lambrose covered the North Bay to Oregon area. Jim Burrus covered the South and East Bay areas down to Gilroy. And I covered the Central Valley's 300 miles from Fresno to Redding and over to Reno/Tahoe up to Susanville. The Schwinn Dealers in this geographic area lived and breathed Mountain Bike from it's very beginnings. As salesmen were heard every day from our dealers "what Schwinn should be doing". The bicycles pictured above show how confused the Schwinn Product Management Department was about the subject and how to plan new models to fill the dealer needs. They could not understand that you cannot just take a Varsity frame, dress it with various parts, and have a BMX Cruiser, a Five Speed, and a Ten-Speed Mountain Bike. The three of us sent many requests, many photos, and many event reports into Chicago managers documenting the growth and trend changes in the new activity. It fell on deft ears. Bob Lambrose was by far the most into the Mountain Bike scene, Schwinn would have been smart to promote him to a "Mountain Bike" Product Management position based out of his home.

Just look at the Mountain Bike models pictured in the 1984 catalog, steel rims "that don't stop", MX1000 side pull (borrowed from BMX) brakes, and heavy gum wall beach cruiser tires, YUK! Schwinn had the ability, had the sales distribution, the product purchasing power, but would not take the trend seriously. This is after they rode the Sting Ray fad, then the Ten Speed fad all the way to the bank, but ignored the BMX and Mountain Bike activities.

The Sierra Brown color had been around for many years in the Schwinn line. It went back into the 1960's on Exercisers, adult Town and Country Tri Bikes, even the 1967-8-9 Schwinn Run-A-Bout fold up bikes came in Sierra Brown. IMO, it was just a color name, it had nothing to do with the geography of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In defense, it's lots easier to look back today and see exactly where wrong turns were made. Hindsight is always Crystle Clear.

John

It's amazing to me that the '83 Sidewinder had steel rims while the earlier ones had aluminum. Did it save them that much money? Or maybe the new Sierra was supposed to take up the flag?

 

[AS-1]

In 1982, I lived and worked in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Well actually at the base of the mountains in the bedroom community of Roseville, just outside of Sacramento, CA. Schwinn had three District Salesman working in Northern California. Bob Lambrose covered the North Bay to Oregon area. Jim Burrus covered the South and East Bay areas down to Gilroy. And I covered the Central Valley's 300 miles from Fresno to Redding and over to Reno/Tahoe up to Susanville. The Schwinn Dealers in this geographic area lived and breathed Mountain Bike from it's very beginnings. As salesmen were heard every day from our dealers "what Schwinn should be doing". The bicycles pictured above show how confused the Schwinn Product Management Department was about the subject and how to plan new models to fill the dealer needs. They could not understand that you cannot just take a Varsity frame, dress it with various parts, and have a BMX Cruiser, a Five Speed, and a Ten-Speed Mountain Bike. The three of us sent many requests, many photos, and many event reports into Chicago managers documenting the growth and trend changes in the new activity. It fell on deft ears. Bob Lambrose was by far the most into the Mountain Bike scene, Schwinn would have been smart to promote him to a "Mountain Bike" Product Management position based out of his home.

Just look at the Mountain Bike models pictured in the 1984 catalog, steel rims "that don't stop", MX1000 side pull (borrowed from BMX) brakes, and heavy gum wall beach cruiser tires, YUK! Schwinn had the ability, had the sales distribution, the product purchasing power, but would not take the trend seriously. This is after they rode the Sting Ray fad, then the Ten Speed fad all the way to the bank, but ignored the BMX and Mountain Bike activities.

The Sierra Brown color had been around for many years in the Schwinn line. It went back into the 1960's on Exercisers, adult Town and Country Tri Bikes, even the 1967-8-9 Schwinn Run-A-Bout fold up bikes came in Sierra Brown. IMO, it was just a color name, it had nothing to do with the geography of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In defense, it's lots easier to look back today and see exactly where wrong turns were made. Hindsight is always Crystle Clear.

John

It might have all been moot, given the other players in the game. The 1983 Specialized Stumpjumper was a sales steamroller that was an offshore, full production bike coming into the west coast in containers. To make matters worse, Sinyard was one of the "brothers" and all the sticks like Breeze and Kelly liked him a lot. Schwinn could have done everything right, geometry, components, the works, and would have probably still gotten their butts whipped. In reality, the Sidewinder was a junk trap of fabricated steel parts and a few low end Shimano(SR, maybe, I forgot) bits just to make it sound good. I've ridden the blood out of a couple of Stumpies, I still have the very early lugged, bi-plane and it's twice the bike of any of the early Schwinn "mountain bikes." Add a couple of shop made bikes by the legendary west coast hippie frame makers and then toss in GT and Schwinn was toast, no matter how strong a machine they were. By the time they got to the Cimarron, all of the Hans Rey wannabees were willing victims of the "real" mountain bike mystique, and could have cared less about the guys who used to build ballooners. For all of its glitzy marketing, the King Sting was a train wreck.

 

[DrRumack80]

It's amazing to me that the '83 Sidewinder had steel rims while the earlier ones had aluminum. Did it save them that much money? Or maybe the new Sierra was supposed to take up the flag?

If I remember correctly, the '83 catalog even stated that the Sidewinder is "vastly improved over last year's model".