Ross Bicycles Inc. manufactured over 15 million bicycles under the Ross brand, between 1946 and 1988. The company began in Williamsburg, New York, later moving its headquarters and manufacturing to Rockaway Beach, Queens. The headquarters remained in Rockaway when manufacturing was later moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania -- before ultimately being outsourced to Taiwan and the company's demise and bankruptcy in 1988.
Ross competed domestically with bicycle manufacturers including Schwinn and Huffy -- and was noted as a pioneering manufacturer of mountain bikes.
Video Ross (bicycle company)
History
Ross was started by Albert Ross as Ross Galvanizing Works in 1940 "manufacturing and galvanizing pipes and pipe fittings for the fencing industry and later galvanized steel parts for military ships during World War II." After World War II, it was incorporated as Chain Bike Corp. in 1946.
Ross' first factory was on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, New York, near the Schaefer Brewery and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The company moved to Beach 79th Street in Rockaway Beach, Queens (now Far Rockaway) some time around 1960, the company was renamed Ross Bicycles Inc. on May 21, 1982, and in 1973 manufacturing was moved to a new, purpose-built plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Ross moved bicycle production to Taiwan in 1986 and filled for bankruptcy protection in 1988.
In addition to bicycles, Ross manufactured ammunition boxes for the US government at its Lehigh facility and cited the government contract as the source of its financial difficulties at the time of filing for Chapter 11 protection.
The Ross name was purchased by Rand Cycle in Farmingdale, New York, which suffered a recall of 11,000 mountain bikes in 1998. Randy Ross, grandson of Albert, introduced a stair stepper bike in 2007.
Albert Ross' son Sherwood (Jerry) B. Ross (1921-2013) was CEO of Ross Bicycles from 1946 to 1990, held several bicycle-related patents, served as President of the Bicycle Institute of America (BIA) and the Bicycle Manufacturers Association (BMA), and acted as an expert witness in product liability cases.
Maps Ross (bicycle company)
Bicycles
Ross began making bicycles in 1946, and by the late 1960s, Ross manufactured about 1 million bicycles per year. By 1985, it had sold 10 million bicycles. The company, still known as Chain Bicycle Corporation, marketed bikes under the Ross brand, including children's bikes as well as BMX, touring, cruiser, mountain, racing, wheelie, and stationary exercise bicycles.
In 1968, Ross joined the muscle bike craze with models such as the Marlin with a "Console Mounted Stick Brake", the Barracuda with a "Chrome Twin Stick Shift Console", and the Barracuda Beast with a "Futura Sports Car Steering Wheel".
In 1982, Ross introduced one of the first production mountain bikes, the Force One at Interbike, and in 1983, they launched the first professional factory sponsored mountain bike race team, the Ross Indians.
With the rising popularity of mountain bikes, Randolph (Randy) Ross, Sherwood Ross's son and executive vice president of Ross Bicycles Inc., said in the New York Times "these bikes are one of the biggest things that ever happened to the biking industry. Its basic look constitutes "a total shift in image" for the industry." By 1989, Nyle Nims, at the time a vice president at Ross Bicycles (and later founder of Cycle Force Group), said 40 percent of bicycle sales were mountain bikes, adding "we see a lot of people who previously owned the dropped bar, 10-speed bike buying the wide-tire bikes, they are people who don't want to ride fast; they want to ride for recreation."
References
External links
- RandyRossStepper Corp.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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