The Rocket 88 was Schwinn's first proprietary full-suspension Mountain Bike.

 

The directive, delivered by marketing, on a November day was as follows:  

 

"We want our own, super-fast full-suspension mountain bike design.  

It should have around 80mm of travel and weigh no more than 5.5lbs... with shock...  Oh yeah, and we want to show it, ready-to-ship, at Interbike next September".

 

No problem.

 

Suspension analysis was performed in Mechanica on Pro/E. 

CAD development was created in Pro/E.

 

I functioned as the lead Design Engineer on the Rocket 88 for the inaugural 2000 model, as well as the refined and much improved, 2001 model.

 

As a side note, the suspension travel was tweaked to 88mm, and named “Rocket 88” after the first Rock’n’Roll record recorded in the infamous Sun Studio in 1951.