cover image No Hands: The Rise and Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company: An American Institution

No Hands: The Rise and Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company: An American Institution

Judith Crown. Henry Holt & Company, $25 (350pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-3553-7

This involving saga of the rise and fall of an American icon, the Schwinn Bicycle Company, combines a colorful social history of bicycling with a cautionary tale on the many forces that can bring down a family-run enterprise. Founded in 1895 in Chicago by headstrong German immigrant Ignaz Schwinn, the firm saw its market eclipsed by the automobile age, until Schwinn's son Frank led the bicycle industry out of the Depression with diverse styles and a youth-oriented image. Business boomed in the 1950s, but imported bikes splintered the market, and third- and fourth-generation Schwinns, clinging to old formulas, fell behind. The closing of the Chicago factory in 1983, a Pyrrhic victory over the union, left Schwinn essentially an importer. Parts shortages and lack of investment in new equipment were further burdens. Crown and Coleman, reporter and deputy managing editor, respectively, at Crain's Chicago Business, maintain that Ed Schwinn Jr., who became president in 1979, soured key relationships with dealers, employees and suppliers through his arrogance, managerial blunders and a series of joint ventures that sapped the company's limited resources. After filing for bankruptcy in 1992, Schwinn Bicycle was bought by Chicago investors Sam Zell and David Schulte, who moved the streamlined enterprise to Boulder, Colo. Photos. Author tour. (Oct.)