Originally Posted by
RobbieTunes
I didn’t even know there were bike magazines back then.
Second-hand Popular Science and Popular Mechanics were my mainstays, along with Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report, two weeks old from the library.
I didn’t see an Italian bike until I was about 20. Didn’t recognize Campagnolo until about age 27, and I thought indexing was “really cool” when I first saw it in 1987. I bought an STI-equipped Ironman in 2004, promptly determined “these don’t work,” and took it to a shop, where she calmly shifted the chain back and forth and said “they work” with a straight face and handed the bike back.
It was very similar to me. I never physically touched a piece of Campy until I was over 21. That was about the time SIS was in full swing. I wanted nothing to do with Shimano in those years.