>>1866353Not exactly. They had some racing heritage, even so this isn't the reason they went under. They had success before and during the bike boom but this made them too comfortable. During the bike boom, the U.S. enjoyed a better selection of racier, lighter bikes from recent import from Europe and Japan, and American customers sort of realized that American bike manufacturers, even if they made bikes that looked like road bikes (Varsity, Continental, Super Sport etc), were about 5-10 years behind in terms of technology especially regarding frame tubing. Boomers will cope and say that they are heavy because they are bomb-proof, but the maybe small drop in durability of the foreign bikes was worth the weight savings. These American "racy" looking bikes were just absolute boat anchors, and even shitty Peugeot gaspipe shitters were lighter. American tastes had changed a little by the end of the bike boom.
Eventually Schwinn realized the changing market but was a little late to react to the change. They pretty much never recovered from this. Eventually they tried to get people back with cheaper and sportier frames made in Taiwan and Japan, but the damage had already been done. Their reputation as low-tech, heavy bikes went with them into the 80s. This foreign manufacture also sort of ruined their image as The American Bicycle Manufacturer. What was the point of the company if half their frames were foreign?This meant that from the 80s on was all an effort to slow down how hard they were falling. It's a shame because they really made some nice stuff in the late 80s/early 90s, especially the Japanese stuff.
TLDR Schwinn got too comfortable from their success from having a monopoly on American sales for decades, and didn't advance their tech fast enough. When they finally had advanced competition from outside America they got left behind and never recovered.
