The Paramount series had limited production numbers, making vintage examples quite rare today. The 1960 Varsity was introduced as an 8-speed bike, but in mid-1961 was upgraded to 10 speeds. Other road bikes were introduced by huffy mountain bike in the early and mid 1960s, such as the Superior, Sierra, and Super Continental, but these were only produced for a few years.
Older mongoose bmx bike “cruisers”, such as the Excelsior that was the inspiration of the first mountain bikes, used a straight lower top tube from the bottom of the head tube to the seat tube. With historic roots in outdoor cycling, Schwinn®’s focus has always been on authenticity and quality. We brought the feel of the road to indoor cycling with the same expertise and education that drives the industry forward. Schwinn is an informational and educational source for all things Indoor Cycling.
Schwinn is perhaps best known for cruiser and comfort bicycles, but it makes some capable road bikes as well. Positive online reviews mention how many features Schwinn exercise bikes have for a relatively affordable price. Reviewers describe the bike frames as sturdy yet easy to move and say that they are conveniently sized for apartments and smaller homes. Schwinn Home Fitness now offers a full range of exercise machines for the home and gym, including bikes, treadmills, and elliptical trainers. The Schwinn IC3 indoor exercise bike offers beginner and intermediate cyclists a low impact workout in the comfort of their home. The Schwinn IC3 can help a person increase their fitness and potentially reduce their risk of certain diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Test editor Riley Missel is an experienced road racer, mountain biker, and a national champion on the track who has been at Bicycling since 2017. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website.
The carbon 105 models are even ridden by the STKD Racing Squad, which is a Category 3 women’s road racing team. The most premium build sports a lightweight carbon frame and fork with Shimano 105 components. There’s also an aluminum-framed version of this build with a full-carbon fork. Though these are mechanical disc brakes, they offer superior stopping power compared to rim brakes. Pacific Cycle bought what was left of this iconic American brand and started selling Schwinn models as “box store” bikes at Walmart, Target, and Toys R Us.
This in turn led to further inroads by domestic and foreign competitors. Faced with a downward sales spiral, schwinn bicycles went into bankruptcy in 1992. The company and name were bought by the Zell/Chilmark Fund, an investment group, in 1993.
This ain’t my Specialized Sirrus, aluminum frame and carbon fork, but the Schwinn is proving to be a comfortable and reliable steed for casual riding or toting around in the back of my truck so I can whiz around on a whim. However, such will make me stronger and faster when I throw a leg over my Specialized! Probably the most important thing to know about Schwinn bikes is that not many bike shops will actually work on them if you need repairs. And if you’re going to be riding the bike regularly, then there is a decent chance that you will end up needing to get it repaired. It’s kinda sad to think about how Schwinn used to be THE brand of bikes for Americans, but now they’re not really worth the money you spend on them.
While the Hollywood bike was ostensibly a budget-priced kid’s option, it was still built to be a workhorse—as was the Chicago way. Our museum artifact stayed on the road for a solid 50 years, in fact, serving most recently as the trusty steed of a young Japanese immigrant in the 2010s. She zig-zagged the streets of her new Chicago neighborhood each day, learning the lay of the land on a bike that some of her neighbors might have once had a hand in building.