Ross was to New York what Schwinn was to Chicago: the home brand. “There was one market where Ross outsold Schwinn and that was Manhattan and Long Island,” said Pat Cunnane, who was a Ross regional sales manager in the 1980s. Through the 80s, Ross’ brand was strongest in its home market. Until then, bikes were mostly sold at either auto parts stores, department stores, or Schwinn stores. Ross was one of a handful of brands that helped establish independent, non-Schwinn, bike shops starting in the 1970s. The company was renamed Ross Bicycles in 1982. After the war, the company was renamed Chain Bike Company and focused on making bikes, first at several locations around New York and then at a factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that opened in the 1970s. The company initially made pipe fittings for industry and for the Navy during World War II. And in the 1960s and 1970s, it was one of the key suppliers to what was then a new retail channel: independent bicycle dealers.Īlbert Ross founded Ross Galvanizing Works in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood in 1940. The brand also had a key role in establishing the mountain bike as a product category and kick-starting professional mountain bike racing.
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