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1975 Swingbike

Invented by Ralph Belden of Cascade Locks, Oregon USA sometime in the 1960s, the Swing Bike was granted a U.S. Patent in 1974 and, after further development and prototyping, went into production in Taiwan and was distributed "world wide" in late 1975. Initially owned and distributed by the E.B.M. Corporation of Santa Barbara, California, USA, the publicly traded company was soon to be moved to Logan, Utah, USA. The Swing Bike Company was headed by Patrick Hoggan, but most people remember the tie in with another family from Utah, the Osmonds. Advertised on the Donny and Marie Osmond TV Show, the Swing Bike became linked both in live action, radio and in print with the youngest Osmond entertainer, Jimmy Osmond. As the brochure stated, 'With SWING BIKE, you can invent wacky manoeuvres which leave everyone else bug-eyed in amazement'! ' The bike sold $98.50 in 1975, $119.00 in 1976, and was back down to $99.00 in 1978. The production colours were Yellow, Blue, Orange, and Green. The Swing Bike company would distribute instructions for how to run a Swing Bike Rodeo with competitions including slalom, obstacle course, pylons, curb ride, and, of course, the wheelie. This fun would continue until around 1978 or 1979. I don't know if the demise was coincidental with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) weighing in on bicycles in 1978 or too many kids' mothers left "bug-eyed in amazement", but the company gave up on the bikes and tried to move (unfortunately not along with their shareholders) into other products before folding (their trademark expired in 1983). Since most of the bikes were sold on consignment, many remaining Swing Bikes in dealer showrooms were abandoned by the Swing Bike company, moved to dealer back stock and not sold for (unfounded) fear of liability. This may explain why you do find a few new- in-box examples popping up every once in a while. Bikes that "swing" in a similar manner have come and gone over the years. June of 2004 brought us a new Swing Bike company that is producing a nearly identical Swing Bike (the grandson of the original Swing Bike Company's Sales Manager is the President). Let's hope it sticks around longer this time. Thanks so much to Bob Hufford from the Swingbike web site for this information it is greatly appreciated, please check out his site in the links page for more photos and info.