Originally Posted by
63rickert
No one on thread seems to know one thing about what I would consider old days.
Oddly enough this is my 51st season in cycling as a sport.
My 1st coach raced on the board tracks pre-WWII and I competed in ABL of A, USCF and NORBA racing on the track, road, 'cross and MTB for a good long while.
When you say "
we did not fall off our bikes" I have to disagree, race crashes happened in every discipline of the sport "back when" and I have the collarbones to prove it. 
There was no free lunch in physics back when, bike handling skills were not magically endowed on all at the time, people did stupid stuff, **** just happened and we were willing to take risks that didn't work out so well sometimes. Kind of like today, no doubt.
It's not 1969 anymore, and your version of it never was in my racing experience either.
-Bandera