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Come with me through an old Schwinn bicycle factory

Smaug

Smaug

Well-Known Member
Friday at work, a friend told me about a group ride near us starting from Waterford Precision Cycles. They are closing at the end of this month and were putting on one last ride. Also, they were giving a tour with the aim of maybe attracting some people to buy some things; either the whole business or at least their classic tools.

The factory started as a Schwinn factory that built the Paramount bike. Richard Schwinn bought the factory in 1993 after the Schwinn bicycle company went bankrupt in 1992 and founded the Waterford Precision Cycles. The purchase came with all the historic Schwinn tooling used to make the Paramount.

I believe Richard is the last Schwinn involved in the bicycle business. Here are the first batch of photos I took during the tour Richard gave yesterday before the ride:

(the photos were made with the Positive Film JPG engine, then resized manually to 1800 px on the long edge)

This is a modern Waterford bicycle. They make the frame & fork, then arrange for the addition of the other hardware or just sell the frame.
R0000929.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/4
  • 1/250 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200



an individual workstation:
R0000932.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/40 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200



Here, Richard Schwinn talks about this fixture for building forks:
R0000933.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/60 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200



Completed frames, ready for painting:
R0000935_1800.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/100 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200



Some old machine tools. On the left looks like a cutoff tool, then a mill and I don't recognize the machine on the right.
R0000936.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/25 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200


More to come...
 
Photos, Pt. 2:

Acid baths, to get the frames really clean before painting:
R0000937.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/40 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200



Painted frames, ready for either quality check or for components to be added:
R0000938.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/13 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200



Vintage Paramount frames, refurbished:
R0000939.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/13 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200



Here are a group of riders ready to leave for a ride. Richard planned 27, 43 and 61 mile rides for us.
R0000947.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/5.6
  • 1/500 sec
  • Pattern
  • Manual exposure
  • 1
  • ISO 200



Here is my daughter Stanzi, ready to head out on the 27 mile ride with me. She is on our folding electric bike. On this, she was able to stay with the peloton of road riders.
IMG-4287.JPG
  • Apple - iPhone 12 Pro
  • iPhone 12 Pro back triple camera 4.2mm f/1.6
  • 4.2 mm
  • ƒ/1.6
  • 1/2398 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 32


More to come...
 
Here, Richard talks to the tour group about this frame a customer sent in. The customer is "local famous". He rides to raise money for causes he believes in, for example, his church, fibro miyalsia (sp?), pediatric cancer (St. Jude's).

This frame represents his first crash, which occurred for him at about 1 million miles (1,620,000 km). It was at about 300k miles on this frame alone. It is a piece of history, and Ricard is thinking of giving it to a museum. The rider of this bike was sent a new frame, and the rider is now up to about 1.9 million miles total. He's in his late 50s.

R0000942.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/8 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200
R0000943.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/6 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 125
R0000944.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/6 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 100
R0000946.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/10 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200
 
Last edited:
Here is the last set from the day.

When we started the ride, I was dropped from the group within 5 minutes. They were on road bikes with skinny, slick 100 psi tires, I was on a hybrid bike with semi-knobby tires with 40 psi. Also, they are serious hobbyist cyclists and I'm just a commuter. (with a short commute at that) My daughter on the electric bike was able to keep up. She put in a lot of her own effort, because that bike will only go 15 miles on throttle, 20 miles on PAS3 (Power Assist System, Level 3) and 30 miles on PAS 2. She still had half of the battery left. She told me she left it on PAS1 most of the time (which only assists to 9 mph) and used PAS 2 (13 mph) and throttle to help with hills.

Since I was apart from the peloton anyway, I stopped now and then for some sightseeing. In the Wisconsin countryside I spotted this early 1970s Cadillac Fleetwood. It is not collector's grade, but has been protected from some sunlight anyway and has minimal rust. My dad used to call these types of cars "land yachts" when I was a kid.

R0000948.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/5.6
  • 1/500 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200
R0000949.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/5.6
  • 1/800 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200
R0000950.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/5
  • 1/320 sec
  • Pattern
  • Auto exposure
  • ISO 200
R0000952.JPG
  • RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - RICOH GR III
  • 18.3 mm
  • ƒ/5.6
  • 1/500 sec
  • Pattern
  • Manual exposure
  • 0.7
  • ISO 200


Thanks for coming along!
 
Smaug said:
Friday at work, a friend told me about a group ride near us starting from Waterford Precision Cycles. They are closing at the end of this month and were putting on one last ride. Also, they were giving a tour with the aim of maybe attracting some people to buy some things; either the whole business or at least their classic tools.

The factory started as a Schwinn factory that built the Paramount bike. Richard Schwinn bought the factory in 1993 after the Schwinn bicycle company went bankrupt in 1992 and founded the Waterford Precision Cycles. The purchase came with all the historic Schwinn tooling used to make the Paramount.

I believe Richard is the last Schwinn involved in the bicycle business. Here are the first batch of photos I took during the tour Richard gave yesterday before the ride:

(the photos were made with the Positive Film JPG engine, then resized manually to 1800 px on the long edge)

This is a modern Waterford bicycle. They make the frame & fork, then arrange for the addition of the other hardware or just sell the frame.
View attachment 10841


an individual workstation:
View attachment 10842


Here, Richard Schwinn talks about this fixture for building forks:
View attachment 10843


Completed frames, ready for painting:
View attachment 10844


Some old machine tools. On the left looks like a cutoff tool, then a mill and I don't recognize the machine on the right.
View attachment 10845

More to come...
Click to expand...
Looks like a drill press in the center and the blue one, I think is a band saw
 
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