The best measure of one’s expertise in a field is not what one knows, but what one is aware they don’t know. As a person climbs up the ramp to proficiency in a skill, the amount of visible depth of complexity explodes in their face, forcing them to confront how much there is to learn. I am just at the beginning of my path into the realm of bicycle maintenance and repair.

With that said, I do have some impressions regarding brands that have held up to my experience thus far. There are a LOT of bike brands, and I will only cover those that I have been working with often here. You will also not find many specifics, mostly because I still don’t have too much of a clue. Consider that my disclaimer.

Schwinnz

Long story short, anything made by Schwinn before 2000 is probably worth your time. Anything afterward is extremely dubious.

Schwinn is a make with a long history, and one that I really hope will see a resurgence in quality. It was The brand was purchased by Pacific Cycles just after Y2K, and it has suffered ever since. Oddly, the Schwinn brand acquisition was hurriedly completed on September 11th, 2001 – frighteningly portentous. They used to be a fantastic entry-level bike manufacturer – now the best thing that can be said about them is that the are the king of the heap of bikes you can find at Target or Walmart.

I have a soft spot for the brand, the old ones are really fun and easy to work on, and I will try to be patient until they are freed from their current purgatory and are allowed to become a real bike manufacturer once more. Luckily, for now, there is a seemingly endless supply of old Schwinn models to work on, and since they made solid bikes back then it is worth the time and effort. I have messed with many, and I have not been disappointed.

The newer models… They tend to not be worth the time. Pacific took what credibility the Schwinn brand had and stripped out any personality from the bikes so that they would be marketable to a wide audience. Gone are the days of straightforward, fast, easy to maintain Schwinns. What we have now is a make that is only slightly better than the Roadmaster POS that it is sitting adjacent to.

New Schwinns have no center. The brand apes the styling of good manufacturers like Giant and Specialized, almost always to the detriment of the bike. Those neat curves make for a ridiculously heavy bike and require complex drivetrain tricks – if they just made good, simple, solid bikes they could reattain their former glory. Good luck while under Pacific.

The best case scenario for Schwinn, sadly, is to get sold to a different bike conglomerate who then allows them some freedom. If they use that freedom correctly, and recapture what made them great in the 70s and 80s, we just might see a resurgent Schwinn.

I wouldn’t hold your breath, though.

[adam]