Roadmaster is an American bicycle brand currently owned by
Pacific Cycle
Pacific Cycle, Inc., is an American division of Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings that imports and distributes bicycles. It was founded in 1977 by Chris Hornung. The company pioneered the sourcing of bicycles from the Far East for distribution in ...
, which in turn is owned by Dutch conglomerate
Pon Holdings
Pon Holdings BV is a Dutch conglomerate in the transport sector. It was founded in 1980 by Ben Pon, Jr., a former racing car driver and son of Ben Pon, Sr., who became the importer of Volkswagen in the Netherlands in 1947.
Activities
Tra ...
.
History
![Roadmaster Cape Cod white girl bike 59 St 6 Av SW jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Roadmaster_Cape_Cod_white_girl_bike_59_St_6_Av_SW_jeh.jpg)
Roadmaster Bicycles were first introduced by the Cleveland Welding Company in 1936. In 1950, after purchasing the ''Roadmaster'' line of children's and youth bicycles from the Cleveland Welding Company,
AMF entered the bicycle manufacturing business with its newly formed AMF Wheeled Goods Division. In 1953, after a labor strike, AMF moved bicycle manufacturing from the
UAW
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American Labor unions in the United States, labor union that represents workers in the Un ...
-organized plant in
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
to a new facility in
Little Rock, Arkansas
(The Little Rock, The "Little Rock")
, government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager
, leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_ ...
. The new plant was heavily automated and featured more than a mile of part conveyor belts in six separate systems, including an
electrostatic spray painting operation.
Taking advantage of the increase in its target markets in the aftermath of the baby boom, AMF was able to diversify its product line, adding exercise equipment under the brand name ''Vitamaster'' in 1950. As demand for bicycles continued to expand, the company found the need for a new manufacturing facility to keep up with demand. As two-wheeled bicycles increased in popularity a new plant was built in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1951. In 1962, the company moved its operations to
Olney, Illinois
Olney ( ) is the county seat in Richland County, Illinois. The population was 9,115 at the time of the 2010 census.
History
Settlement of the Richland County area began around 1815 when Thaddeus Morehouse, a native of Vermont, arrived by wa ...
, where it built a new factory on a site that would remain the company's principal bicycle manufacturing location into the 1990s. Products manufactured there were children's vehicles, sidewalk bikes, toy autos, tricycles, garden tractors, seat cars and wagons and playground equipment. The company produced over 100,000 miniature Mustangs for Ford Motor Company late in the 1960s.
BMX bike
A BMX bike is an off-road sport bicycle used for racing or stunt riding. BMX mean''s bicycle'' ''motocross''.
Construction
Though originally denoting a bicycle intended for BMX racing, the term "BMX bike" is now used as a generic term to e ...
s, mopeds and
exercise bicycle
A stationary bicycle (also known as exercise bicycle, exercise bike, spinning bike, spin bike, or exercycle) is a device used as exercise equipment for indoor cycling. It includes a saddle, pedals, and some form of handlebars arranged as on ...
s were introduced in the 1970s.
After two decades of consistent growth, the AMF Wheel Goods Division stalled under the long-distance management of a parent company bogged down in layers of corporate management and marginally profitable product lines. Manufacturing quality as well as the technical standard of the ''Roadmaster'' bicycle line - once the pride of the company - had fallen to an all-time low. Bicycles made at the Olney plant were manufactured so poorly that some Midwestern bike shops refused to repair them, claiming that the bikes would not stay fixed no matter how much labor and effort was put into them. The division's problems with quality and outside competition were neatly summed up in a 1979 American film, ''
Breaking Away'', in which identical secondhand AMF ''Roadmaster'' track bicycles were used by competitors in the ''
Little 500
The Little 500 (also known popularly as the "Little Five"), is a track cycling race held annually during the third weekend of April at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It is attended by more th ...
'' bicycle race. Despite this
product placement
Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
, the film's protagonist expressed a decided preference for his lightweight Italian ''Masi'' road racing bike, deriding the elderly ''Roadmaster'' as a 'piece of junk'.
In 1983 AMF sold the assets to George Nebel, the General Manager and Bob Zinnen. In 1987 the company was sold to entrepreneur and merger and acquisition expert Thomas W Itin. Itin brought in two other investors Equitex and Enercorp, both Business Development Companies, under the 40 Act "BDCs" run by Henry Fong. It changed its name to Roadmaster Industries, Inc. and positioned itself as the leader in the fitness equipment and junior toy industries. Itin and Fong took the company public through an IPO in the end of 1987. Itin and Fong acquired over 20 companies in the sporting goods field. Roadmaster grew from $40,000,00 in unprofitable sales to over $800,000,000 of highly profitable sales. Under the symbol of RDMI it went from small cap on NASDQ to large cap on NMS to the American Stock Exchange and then to the New York Stock Exchange and became a Fortune 1000 company.
Helped by the increasing popularity of Mountain Bikes, Roadmaster experienced a 72% increase in bicycle sales in 1993. A new bicycle production plant was built in Effingham, Illinois to keep pace with the growing demand. Roadmaster acquired
Flexible Flyer
Flexible Flyer is a toy and recreational equipment brand, best known for the sled of the same name, a steerable wooden sled with steel runners.
Operation
Flexible Flyers are flexible both in design and usage. Riders may sit upright on the sle ...
Company, whose history dates back to 1889.
In 1997 the Roadmaster bicycle division was sold to the
Brunswick Corporation. However, it had already become evident that production of low-cost, mass-market bicycles in the United States was no longer viable in the face of intense foreign competition, and in 1999, all U.S. production of ''Roadmaster'' bicycles ceased. Brunswick sold its bicycle division and the Roadmaster brand to
Pacific Cycle
Pacific Cycle, Inc., is an American division of Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings that imports and distributes bicycles. It was founded in 1977 by Chris Hornung. The company pioneered the sourcing of bicycles from the Far East for distribution in ...
, which began distributing a new ''Roadmaster'' line of bicycles imported from
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
and the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Pacific Cycle still uses the Olney facility for corporate offices and as a product inventory and distribution center.
Today the Roadmaster brand has been reactivated and is basically a low-end to middle-end bike sold through big box stores.
[http://www.roadmasterbikes.com/bikes/ official page redirects to http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=roadmaster&cat_id=4171_133073. Top of page states "Only available at Walmart"]
References
External links
New Pacific-Cycles's Roadmaster official siteRoadmaster product registrationPacific-Cycle official siteDorel Industries website
{{Authority control
Road cycles
Cycle manufacturers of the United States