Ross (bicycles)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Ross was a U.S. built line of bikes between 1950 and 1989, somewhat rivaling Schwinn, up until the mid 1980s. They were manufactured in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and had corporate headquarters in Rockaway Beach, New York.

They sold everything from kids bikes to road bikes. They were one of the first bike companies to jump in and manufacture 2 to 5 models of mountain bikes when they were just coming into vogue in 1983.

[edit] History

The company was founded in 1940 as the Ross Galvanizing Works. It was located in Brooklyn, New York near the Brooklyn Navy Yards. During WWII the company had extensive contracts with the U.S. Government to coat (galvanize) the bottom of ships. When the war ended, at the suggestion of Sherwood Ross, the company switched to the manufacturing of wheeled goods including bicycles, tricycles, wheel chairs, lawn mowers and roller skates.

The company moved its manufacturing plant to Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York in the 1950s and by the late 50's solely manufacured bikes and trikes and was the 3rd largest domestic producer of bicycles after Schwinn and Huffy. The company moved again in the early 70's to a new facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania. During the two oil crises of the 1970s (1973 & 1979) the company worked around the clock in three shifts and turned out over 1 million bicycles in each of those years.

Upon Albert Ross' retirement in 1969 the ownership of the company was turned over in equal shares to Albert's son Sherwood B. Ross and daughter Teddy. In 1980, Sherwood B. Ross bought out his sister and remained the sole owner until the company went bankrupt in 1989. The company was unable to compete with imports from the Far East made with very cheap labor. The company tried to stay afloat by shifting it's bicycle manufacturing to leased factories in Taiwan and use the Allentown facility to fulfill government contracts that it had successfully bid on.

The name ROSS was purchased out of Bankruptcy Court by Rand Cycle, Farmingdale, NY. Sherwood B. Ross worked for Rand for 5 years as a consultant as part of the name deal. Rand never sunk enough money into marketing the ROSS name and although they still own it, they are not actively pursuing ROSS sales.