Before Trek rose to prominence as the premier American bicycle manufacturer, Schwinn was the biggest company in US cycling through most of the 20th Century.

The company started in 1895 and, after a long life of mixed successes, went bankrupt and was bought by Pacific Cycle in 2001.

In 1938 the company introduced what was to become the defining unit of the company, the Schwinn Paramount series.

The Paramount was a high-end model that became incredibly successful and was viewed as a leader both in terms of design and performance.

Schwinn rose to market dominance on the back of the Paramount and later expanded into mountain bike and BMX manufacturing.

Today, Schwinn’s model list is headed by the Series 9 Paramount, which runs an SRAM Red groupset and is fully carbon, supported by Mavic wheels.