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

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

, and had corporate headquarters in Rockaway Beach, New York.

They sold everything from kids bikes, including the wheelie bike

Wheelie bike

A wheelie bike, also called a muscle bike, high-riser, or banana bike, is a type of stylized children's bicycle designed in the 1960s to resemble a chopper motorcycle and characterized by ape hanger handlebars, a banana seat with sissy bar, and small wheels. Notable examples include the Schwinn...

s popular in the 1960s and 1970s, to road bikes. They were one of the first bike companies to manufacture a variety of mountain bikes when they first appeared on the market.

History

The company was founded in 1940 as the Ross Galvanizing Works. It was located in Brooklyn, New York near the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Brooklyn Navy Yard

The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...

s. 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 manufactured bikes and trikes and was the 3rd largest domestic producer of bicycles after Schwinn and Huffy

Huffy

The Huffy Corporation is an American importer and manufacturer of inexpensive mass-market bicycles. It was founded in 1887 when George P. Huffman purchased the Davis Sewing Machine Company and moved its factory to Dayton, Ohio. Seven years later, in 1894, Huffman adapted the factory to...

. 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 its 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.

In 2007, Sherwood's son Randy Ross introduced the stepper bike, an elliptical, stationary, and road bike all in one designed by renowned bicycle inventor Gary Silva.

External links

• Randy Ross Stepper bike site The official site for Randy Ross' inventory of stepper fitness bikes