They weren't Family Schwinn bicycles. They were manufactured by one of the chain of owners/brokers/bottom fishers/blood suckers who tried to make money on the name "Schwinn" after the family went bankrupt. The are three very informative threads posted recently which historically and accurately discuss the demise of the once great American Institution known as The Schwinn Bicycle Co., formerly Arnold, Schwinn & Co.
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"The Last Schwinn Made In America"
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Waterford was founded in 1993, a year after the bankruptcy and the closure of the Greenville factory by Richard Schwinn and a partner/investor. Richard was able to negotiate the use of the Schwinn name with the current owners of the Schwinn dissolution. It's an interesting study and is available to the public.
The only connection Homegrown has to the Schwinn name is that Questor, the current owners of the Schwinn name at that time had paid for the right to use it.
Under contract with Questor, two different job shops built the Homegrown frames. Probably the biggest was Anodizing, Inc of Portland and then Yeti of Golden, Colorado. Most of the components were Shimano and the suspensions, both front and back were Rockshox. The Homegrown was nothing but a Zaskar knockoff.
The Homegrown bike had nothing to do with Schwinn.
The Last Family Schwinn bicycle was built in Greenville, Mississippi and rolled out the door on October 4, 1991. Let's see if we can find out who owns that bike.
I've got 9301. Who can beat me.
Schwinn Sales West
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
@SirMike1983 You pose a difficult question.
IMO, you have to define the difference between MADE IN AMERICA, BUILT IN AMERICA, and ASSEMBLED IN AMERICA.
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) already attacked the Schwinn Family once over the model name called the American and Schwinn dropped that model name in a settlement. The FTC's position was that you cannot call any model an American unless every part on it was made in America. After Diamond Chain Company bowed out of the #65 size bicycle chain manufacturing business in the early 1960's, it was over for anybody to call their bicycle model an American. Think about where you would find any of common parts made in the U.S.A. today in the lower price points? Things like chains/hubs/pedals. Walmart cannot sell a $50.00 bike that is Made in America. So Pacific Cycle purchased the best American brand name for $65M so they could market their product through Walmart as an American Brand.
No Greenville "assembled" Schwinn bicycle would have ever met the FTC's requirement to be called Made in America, or U.S.A. Maybe assembled in Mississippi? I think if you use the definition defined in the original @AS-1 post as Schwinn Family Built it answers the questions of what qualifies.
I also agree with Shawn, that you could make a good argument that the last Schwinn ended with the Chicago plant closing. The last Chicago product was likely an Airdyne Exerciser as they kept that production running until Giant production started to flow.
John
Schwinn Sales West
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Agree "mostly", LOL.
The Homegrown models were a Skip Hess project. Skip was in charge of Schwinn's "Bicycle" Product Management at the time. They also did some Homegrown BMX models. Skip did the 1995 Anniversary project. None of these modes were built or assembled in Boulder, CO. They were all sourced from offsite vendors.
We agree, that they were not Schwinn Family models.
John
Oilit
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Check out post #30 in this thread:
Greenville, MS Schwinn bicycles | All Things Schwinn
Not 100% sure either way. But the Sidewinder frames were basically a modified Varsity frame. I'm pretty sure they didn't EF full frames at the Greenville plant. All the EF tooling was supposidly sold to Murray.
thecabe.com
It's a page from a government report published in 1983. Schwinn started the Waterford factory in 1982, when they were preparing to shut down in Chicago. I think the works was spun off as an independent company in 1993, after Schwinn went bankrupt and the Schwinn name was bought by the Scott Sports group.
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Waterford is a hand-builder of fine custom bicycle frames. Its factory is located in Waterford, Wisconsin, 30 miles southwest of downtown Milwaukee. Founded in 1993, Waterford took over Schwinn Bicycle Company’s Paramount Design Group research and production facility.Check out post #30 in this thread:
Greenville, MS Schwinn bicycles | All Things Schwinn
Not 100% sure either way. But the Sidewinder frames were basically a modified Varsity frame. I'm pretty sure they didn't EF full frames at the Greenville plant. All the EF tooling was supposidly sold to Murray.
It's a page from a government report published in 1983. Schwinn founded Waterford in 1982, when they were preparing to shut Chicago down.
Founded by Richard Schwinn and Marc Muller, Waterford built on the Paramount history of excellence and performance and has established its own reputation the custom bicycle world.
(the above is taken directly from the Waterford website)
Oilit
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Correct, but Schwinn was building Paramounts in Waterford from 1982, 10 years before they went under the first time. As far as I know, Paramounts were never built in Greenville. I was still editing when you posted, hopefully my post makes more sense now.
blue72beetle
Finally riding a big boys bike
2009. 70th Anniversary Paramount.
Made in America with the name Schwinn on it, by a company owned by a member of the Schwinn family.
Made in America with the name Schwinn on it, by a company owned by a member of the Schwinn family.
Thank you very much.
Waterford was founded as a result of the banking crisis of 1991-1992. The former crown jewel of Schwinn Bicycle Company, the Waterford factory was where Schwinn had built its legendary Paramounts for the prior 12 years. Schwinn had filed for bankruptcy in October, 1992, and the creditors were forcing the sale of the company. Marc Muller, who had built the Paramount factory all through the 80’s, and Richard Schwinn head of Schwinn’s manufacturing, had put together a plan to grow the factory, which had made modest profits during the 80’s. When the Schwinn’s management and creditors expressed no interest in the factory, Richard and Marc put in a bid for the factory and won control. The official date of the founding was February 27, 1993.
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