"The Last Schwinn Made In America"

[AS-1]

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.

Part of the original purchase agreement was the right to continue building Paramounts under contract to Schwinn. Though there were orders coming in, for every call discussing a new order, there were two or three asking if the factory was still in business. As Marc, said, “We thought we were buying a going concern, but it wasn’t going by much.”

Marc had also set about tooling up Waterford’s Low Profile lugset – the enhanced version of the OS lugset he’d designed for Paramount. Creating a new lugset not only takes time but also expense. So the slow sales represented a major issue for the company. In response, Waterford introduced it’s Premier Edition models – a road bike and a track design, while continuing to build the slowly recovering Paramount sales.

The road model, dubbed Aurora after the super-secret spyplane, used the same OS heat treated tubing and Paramount lugset as the Paramounts (most of the time trimming off the Paramount’s point). The track bike, the Comet, used old Columbus tubing from Schwinn’s pre-OS days. Sales continued to build, allowing Waterford to prepare for the 1994 Model year.

The 1993 Interbike show in Las Vegas marked the real introduction of the Waterford line in its recognizable form with four models:

1. 1200 Road Racing
2. 1400 Off-Road – Hard Tail
3. 1500 Off-Road – Dual Suspension
4. 1600 Triathlete / Time Trial
5. To emphasize the technology, we presented the bikes all in silver with red decals.
   Sales were disappointing the first year – especially from the show itself (which has never turned out to be very satisfactory, saleswise). The company limped along, pinning its hopes on two contracts.
   The first was a contract with the new owners of Schwinn to build a large number of Paramounts. Waterford built 2-300 Paramounts over the winter of 1993-4. The second was a contract with a small BMX company named Standard. Those bikes were delivered at the beginning of 1994.
   The Paramount contract fizzled out and sales turned out to be disappointing to Schwinn. Schwinn had so many of their own issues surrounding their own rebuilding effort that there was no focus on the US-built Paramount program.
   The relationship with Standard came to dominate Waterford over the following decade.

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

I'd be more interested in owning the first one made.

 

[AS-1]

I'd be more interested in owning the first one made.

Man of La Mancha

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

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.

Just to add a little detail to your very accurate reporting.

Marc Mueller was an engineer and bike enthusiast. He came to work for Schwinn under the wing of Schwinn's lead engineer Frank Brilando. It was Brilando that talked Marc into talking over management of the Paramount Cage where the Paramount's were built in the Chicago factory. Marc did a lot of engineering projects for Schwinn, he was not "just a Paramount guy". He had his hand in the new investment cast lugs Schwinn developed that ended up on the lugged production frames built in Greenville. One of the projects Schwinn spent a lot of engineering time on "before the bankruptcy" was a Full Suspension mountain bike (SASS). This design was a collaboration between Marc Mueller and Eric Buell, an engineer at Harley Davidson. Eric Buell eventually designed the Buell motorcycle with a Harley Davidson supplied engine. Schwinn displayed one of his tig welded chromoly framed motorcycles at an Interbike Show Schwinn booth to draw the connection between the two engineers' suspension design efforts. Schwinn had a great group of talented people, and some very interesting projects in the works. They were moving forward on projects right up to the very last couple of months.

PDG (aka Paramount Design Group) was started out by Bob Read who ran the aftermarket parts and accessories department with Bill Corliss. They were both a couple of bikes geeks with a good eye for opportunities. They really built up Schwinn's parts sales and took it to a new level. They did not have the time to assemble a matching "high end" PDG bike line. Byron Smith was the marketing manager over both Bicycle and Parts and Accessories. He had no time, or the bicycle experience, to spec out the PDG bike line which was to be sourced offshore from National Bicycle (Panasonic) in Japan. The entire PDG bike line was spec'd by Dave Staub. Dave was the General Manager of Schwinn Sales West, a lifetime bicycle geek from South San Francisco and former Pan American track rider. This has caused confusion ever since Schwinn marketing split the "handmade" Paramount Frameset program (made in Waterford) and the "production" PDG (imported) bicycle line. Dave was the guy that spec'd the bicycle kits that were available from any Schwinn Sales Company to assemble a Waterford Schwinn Paramount frameset into a bicycle. After the Paramount cage was closed in Chicago, until the bankruptcy, roughly ten years later, a Paramount was a frameset, and you, or the dealer bought a Shimano/Campagnolo parts group from Schwinn, or a bike kit with built up wheels to assemble the bike. Zell-Chilmark, Scott Sports Group had no interest in purchasing the Waterford facility. They were not interested in manufacturing; they sourced their products from many vendors and sold it under the Schwinn Cycling and Fitness umbrella.

John

 

[AS-1]

Just to add a little detail to your very accurate reporting.

Marc Mueller was an engineer and bike enthusiast. He came to work for Schwinn under the wing of Schwinn's lead engineer Frank Brilando. It was Brilando that talked Marc into talking over management of the Paramount Cage where the Paramount's were built in the Chicago factory. Marc did a lot of engineering projects for Schwinn, he was not "just a Paramount guy". He had his hand in the new investment cast lugs Schwinn developed that ended up on the lugged production frames built in Greenville. One of the projects Schwinn spent a lot of engineering time on "before the bankruptcy" was a Full Suspension mountain bike (SASS). This design was a collaboration between Marc Mueller and Eric Buell, an engineer at Harley Davidson. Eric Buell eventually designed the Buell motorcycle with a Harley Davidson supplied engine. Schwinn displayed one of his tig welded chromoly framed motorcycles at an Interbike Show Schwinn booth to draw the connection between the two engineers' suspension design efforts. Schwinn had a great group of talented people, and some very interesting projects in the works. They were moving forward on projects right up to the very last couple of months.

PDG (aka Paramount Design Group) was started out by Bob Read who ran the aftermarket parts and accessories department with Bill Corliss. They were both a couple of bikes geeks with a good eye for opportunities. They really built up Schwinn's parts sales and took it to a new level. They did not have the time to assemble a matching "high end" PDG bike line. Byron Smith was the marketing manager over both Bicycle and Parts and Accessories. He had no time, or the bicycle experience, to spec out the PDG bike line which was to be sourced offshore from National Bicycle (Panasonic) in Japan. The entire PDG bike line was spec'd by Dave Staub. Dave was the General Manager of Schwinn Sales West, a lifetime bicycle geek from South San Francisco and former Pan American track rider. This has caused confusion ever since Schwinn marketing split the "handmade" Paramount Frameset program (made in Waterford) and the "production" PDG (imported) bicycle line. Dave was the guy that spec'd the bicycle kits that were available from any Schwinn Sales Company to assemble a Waterford Schwinn Paramount frameset into a bicycle. After the Paramount cage was closed in Chicago, until the bankruptcy, roughly ten years later, a Paramount was a frameset, and you, or the dealer bought a Shimano/Campagnolo parts group from Schwinn, or a bike kit with built up wheels to assemble the bike. Zell-Chilmark, Scott Sports Group had no interest in purchasing the Waterford facility. They were not interested in manufacturing; they sourced their products from many vendors and sold it under the Schwinn Cycling and Fitness umbrella.

John

And that, Boys and Girls, is why I always read all of John Palmer's posts.

Thank you, Sir!

 

[Oilit]

Just to add a little detail to your very accurate reporting.

Marc Mueller was an engineer and bike enthusiast. He came to work for Schwinn under the wing of Schwinn's lead engineer Frank Brilando. It was Brilando that talked Marc into talking over management of the Paramount Cage where the Paramount's were built in the Chicago factory. Marc did a lot of engineering projects for Schwinn, he was not "just a Paramount guy". He had his hand in the new investment cast lugs Schwinn developed that ended up on the lugged production frames built in Greenville. One of the projects Schwinn spent a lot of engineering time on "before the bankruptcy" was a Full Suspension mountain bike (SASS). This design was a collaboration between Marc Mueller and Eric Buell, an engineer at Harley Davidson. Eric Buell eventually designed the Buell motorcycle with a Harley Davidson supplied engine. Schwinn displayed one of his tig welded chromoly framed motorcycles at an Interbike Show Schwinn booth to draw the connection between the two engineers' suspension design efforts. Schwinn had a great group of talented people, and some very interesting projects in the works. They were moving forward on projects right up to the very last couple of months.

PDG (aka Paramount Design Group) was started out by Bob Read who ran the aftermarket parts and accessories department with Bill Corliss. They were both a couple of bikes geeks with a good eye for opportunities. They really built up Schwinn's parts sales and took it to a new level. They did not have the time to assemble a matching "high end" PDG bike line. Byron Smith was the marketing manager over both Bicycle and Parts and Accessories. He had no time, or the bicycle experience, to spec out the PDG bike line which was to be sourced offshore from National Bicycle (Panasonic) in Japan. The entire PDG bike line was spec'd by Dave Staub. Dave was the General Manager of Schwinn Sales West, a lifetime bicycle geek from South San Francisco and former Pan American track rider. This has caused confusion ever since Schwinn marketing split the "handmade" Paramount Frameset program (made in Waterford) and the "production" PDG (imported) bicycle line. Dave was the guy that spec'd the bicycle kits that were available from any Schwinn Sales Company to assemble a Waterford Schwinn Paramount frameset into a bicycle. After the Paramount cage was closed in Chicago, until the bankruptcy, roughly ten years later, a Paramount was a frameset, and you, or the dealer bought a Shimano/Campagnolo parts group from Schwinn, or a bike kit with built up wheels to assemble the bike. Zell-Chilmark, Scott Sports Group had no interest in purchasing the Waterford facility. They were not interested in manufacturing; they sourced their products from many vendors and sold it under the Schwinn Cycling and Fitness umbrella.

John

I'm with @AS-1, there's information here that I've never heard before. Thank you!

 

[AS-1]

0670 @Chavez

 

[AS-1]

I have a room full of Waterford built bikes labeled "Schwinn"

Do you have one that was built in 1991?

 

[Kramai88]

Two High Plains new in the box. Shop owner ordered them because he knew they were ending production. Unfortunately date code not stamped on the boxes so not sure when they were actually made.

 

[AS-1]

Whoa! Big Tunda, Whoa!

We need to talk!