Street Racing Cars For Sale

The company is founded in Chicago when there are 300 bicycle companies in the US (101 in Chicago, alone).

Schwinn starts its racing program.

By the end of the year, Schwinn bikes have more victories than any other bike company.

In 1896, the Schwinn line is composed of the bicycles ranging in price from $100 to $125 and in weight from 19 to 24 pounds! Six-day races become the rage. Board tracks spring up everywhere.

Manufacturing advances mean lower prices, making bicycles available to children for the first time. A new market is born.

Tough bikes are developed to stand the punishment that kids dish out.

1911 Schwinn buys Excelsior Motor Cycle Company.
1917 Schwinn buys Henderson Motor Cycle Company.

1925 while the Great Depression drives most bicycle companies out of business, Schwinn makes bold moves to increase capacity and develop new products.

1933 Schwinn creates a new department comprised of bicycle and motorcycle engineers to improve quality and appearance.

Schwinn becomes the standard of innovation for the industry. Arnold, Schwinn & Company introduces the bicycle balloon 26 x 2.125 tire in the spring of 1933 - two years later, it became the standard of the industry.

The Schwinn Aerocycle takes bicycles to the next dimension, styled to resemble airplanes, streamlined automobiles and motorcycles. This new aerodynamic style sets the trend for not only the '30's and '40's, but into the '50's.

1946 Built-in kickstands and new styled drop-outs developed during the war, now improve post-war bikes.

1963 Schwinn introduces the Sting-Ray. With high-rise handlebars, banana seat, Stick-Shift and racing Sliks, it becomes the "in" style machine.

1968 Schwinn Bicycle Company introduces the Sting-Ray Krates. These muscle-car era bikes were truly an American Phenomenon. The Sting-Ray is the machine that will farther the BMX bicycles of the 1980's.

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In 1932, after Cadillac suffered from record low sales and charges of discrimination against black customers, Alfred Sloan created a committee to consider the discontinuation of the Cadillac line.

At a fateful board meeting, Cadillac president Nicholas Dreystadt heard that legendary boxer Joe Louis could not go into a dealership to buy a car, because he was black, and resorted to having a white friend make the purchase for him.

Dreystadt gave the GM Board of Directors a 10 minute speech in which he advocated advertising to black consumers so as to increase sales. The Board agreed to give Dreystadt 18 months to produce results.

By 1934, Cadillac had regained profitability. It is significant to note that after this decision, Cadillac was the only American automobile manufacturer to remain profitable during the Great Depression.

By 1940, Cadillac sales had risen 1000% compared to 1934, thus saving Cadillac from extinction.

The revolutionary V-twin engine enabled riders to reach speeds of 60 miles per hour, which until that time had been believed impossible.

Such capabilities served to set the company's motorcycles apart from the competition; by 1911 there were 150 other companies manufacturing the vehicles.

The onset of World War I was actually a boon for Harley-Davidson. The motorcycle, having done well in its utilization by police, was commissioned for use by the military. It proved especially useful on the U.S.-Mexico border, which was suffering incursions by the forces of Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. In all, 20,000 of the company's machines were employed by the U.S. infantry during the war.

The battlegrounds of the war also served as proving grounds for the motorcycles. After resuming normal production, Harley-Davidson was able to begin incorporating improvements into its new machines. The 1920s saw the company taking the lead in innovative engineering with such features as the Teardrop gas tank and the front brake.

In 1921, the winner of the first race in which motorists reached average speeds of more than 100 miles per hour was riding a Harley-Davidson machine. Only Harley-Davidson and Indian would survive the grueling years of the Great Depression.

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1903 saw the formation of the Federation of American Motorcyclists, which in 1908 put together its first organized event, a two–day endurance run around New York City and Long Island.

The president of the Harley–Davidson Motor Company, Walter Davidson, mounted an early Harley to face off against and defeat 84 other riders representing 22 different makes of motorcycle.

The Department of the Interior used Harleys to patrol Yellowstone Park
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Only Cadillac remained profitable through it
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Prior to the Great Depression there were about 300 motorcycle companies, only 2 survived; Harley Davidson and Indian
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A Willys plant in Toledo had started the year with 28,000 employees. By the end, only 4,000 were still working.

Ford's plant in Detroit lost a similar amount of workers, starting the year with 128,000 and ending it with 100,000

General Motors, which before the Depression employed 260,000, had downsized almost 100,000 of them by October of 1931.

In 1933 an estimated million people spent their lives riding the rails. Roughly a quarter of these transients were under 21.

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All of Indiana's home-grown automobile companies would close due to the depression with the exception of Studebaker. One that closed was Stutz.

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