rustystrings61 

So far no one has mentioned Allegro, available through Jack Kemp of Village Cycles from 1954 till the early 70s. Here's a pic of Vincent Vincente when he was known as Mike Hiltner in 1959 posing with the podium guys with the Allegro Specials (two bikes on the left) that were prizes. Kemp apparently distributed Allegro in the West, and I have no clue if any were sold in the East.

One of the more intriguing aspects of Allegros is that they basically built ONE frame for a range of models, adding brazed-on brake and handlebar-end shifter cable stops and adding varying chrome, fade and pinstripe treatments depending on how deluxe the parts package. In the '50s they used Nervex Professional lugs, usually chromed. Around 1961 they appear to have switched to Bocama Model 14 type II lugs, which they used on their 531 frames until 1974 or so, then switching to plainer Bocamas. Apart from changes in lugs and dropouts, though, the 531-tubed Allegros had appears to be the same geometry they used for racing bikes in the mid-30s.

Maybe not THE most popular enthusiast bikes, but certainly prized and historic.

1989Pre 

1961
Schwinn is out of the question, so that basically leaves Raleigh for numbers of bikes available and sold. In the early 60's, The Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix would be a mid-level bike that you could aim for.
"The Grand Prix, shown at the 1960 New York Toy and Bike Fair, was hugely popular in the United States and most surviving examples are on "the other side" of the Atlantic."
"While there were certainly more sophisticated and better lightweights on the market, the Raleigh Lenton in its myriad forms probably did more to introduce people to sports and club cycling than any single model. Reg Harris really did "Ride a Lenton" but more importantly, so did many thousands of others and it remains one of Raleigh's most popular models and an icon of 1950s Britain."
https://on-the-drops.blogspot.com/20...1948-1960.html

squirtdad

san jose built a track that still runs today in 1963

Hellyer Park Velodrome is a velodrome in Hellyer County Park in San Jose, California, United States. It is a 335 metres (1,099 ft) track with turns at a maximum banking of 23 degrees. It was built in 1963. It is located next to the Coyote Creek Trail and considered part of the county's Coyote Creek Parkway chain of parks along the creek.[1]

In 1972, the Hellyer Velodrome hosted the US Olympic Bicycling Trials.[1][2]

Feldman

I too started cycling in So Cal in the late 1960's. The shop where my parents bought my Schwinn Collegiate 5 speed was also a direct importer for Allegro bikes and the headquarters for the North Hollywood Wheemen. There were always one or two Allegros in inventory and club member bikes being repaired--Raleigh Pros and Competitions, Paramounts, Mondia (also with a So Cal importer) and the odd Masi, Singer, and Cinelli. Carlton was popular in that place and time, too, the Catalina being roughly equivalent to a Raleigh Super Course and the Flyer more like the slightly later Raleigh International. These were also imported directly to the area, by Huffman out in the San Gabriel Valley. They sold Carltons and Alex Moultons with--I swear--Huffy head badges, and Raphael Geminianis without the "brand H" regalia. But, probably the two most popular derailleur geared bikes in Los Angeles in 1968-69 were, of course, Schwinn Varsities and Continentals!

Chr0m0ly 

That looks like a CB160 at 6:10!!

merziac

Alpenrose Velodrome started as a banked dirt track in 1962, then was built into the steepest banked track at 43 degrees in 1967 where the Nationals were held.

Produced many Champions, continues to do so and has no doubt contributed greatly to PDX being the cycling city it is.

Hopefully stays that way with the takeover of the dairy that is underway now.

squirtdad

I grew up in Montana in the 60/70's for most of that time the nearest bicycle shop was 140 miles away, that was a schwinn shop, but only rich kids got schwinns.

Most of us bought bike from local hardware stores or even mail order from sears and roebuck (I suspect a fair number high end bikes in remote areas came from Sears....many were puch built and there were 531 framed ted williams)

English racers were the "hot" bike for most of the 60's (in reality the hot bike was sting rays or sting rays clones) I got one in 68, a columbia, as I could not afford a 10 speed.

I first started hearing about/seeing "10 speeds" around 68/69 and saw my first one about then... one of my friends whose dad owned a hardware store got one. (when a bunch of us got our cycling merit badge the motley crew road 10 speeds, 3 speeds, sting rays and cruiser"

first close bike store opened 20 miles away in 70/71 I got my first 10 speed (an azuki) there and saw my first hi end bike ($400 fuji, with sewups....I lusted after that bike)

so we had no "enthusiasts" just kids that rode bikes most of who stopped riding when they got a drivers license

sykerocker 

A lot of the conversation here is (naturally) centering on the big cities. Allow me to toss in some insights of a small city, Johnstown, PA (at the time population of 50,000 plus an equal number in the defiantly separated suburbs). A typical coal and steel, shot and a beer town, what we today would definitely call "red state America". Politically and culturally VERY conservative, except for one suburb (Westmont) where all the liberals and Jews (which at the time were virtually synonymous) lived. My family was definitely neither liberal nor Jewish, but we lived there.

Bicycle availability? We had a Schwinn shop, and during my grade and high school years (1955-68) I don't ever remember seeing an adult-oriented derailleur equipped bicycle in the shop. He sold bicycles to children. Period. At the age of sixteen, that bicycle was put away in the garage to rot, because of course you'd never be caught dead on it again, not with having your driver's license and availability of the family car. (No, back then, high school kids in our area rarely had their own car, even junkers. The student parking lot at my high school could maybe handle fifty cars for a three year 750 person student body.)

While admittedly, I wasn't a cycling enthusiast back then (my '58 Schwinn Mark IV Jaguar was transportation, not a hobby), I don't remember even seeing the Schwinn lightweight English-style 3-speeds around. What bicycles existed in my area were either curved frame middleweights or Stingrays. The Stingray took over the market in the 60's completely with the kids. I remember trying to talk dad into getting me one, his answer was, "Why? You have a perfectly good bicycle out in the garage?" So I built my own, which, in retrospect, was my beginning as a bicycle mechanic. That would have been around 1963, as I did ride it to junior high in good weather (at that point I was embarrassed to be seen on the Jaguar).

For those whose parents couldn't afford Schwinns, we had Sears, department store bikes, and hardware stores (Huffy, Rollfast, etc.). No doubt there were some 'English racers' (AMF English built 3-speeds) available from the local department store, and I have very vague memories of one of two of the neighborhood kids riding those rather than the balloon tired middleweight.

And that was it. The concept of anyone riding a bicycle past the age of 16 was absolutely laughable. (I still did at times, but then I was the class loser at my high school.) And we didn't even have the college crowd, because when the area did build the University of Pittsburgh campus in the area, they deliberately stuck it as far out in the boonies (eastern suburbs) as they could and still be able to say it was in Johnstown. So far out that a bicycle was a complete waste except for riding around the campus (originally two classroom buildings and three dorms) because it was a three mile ride on very busy four lane PA56 to hit any kind of shopping. Therefore, if you went to Pitt-Johnstown you had to have a car. Johnstown wanted the college kids money. They definitely didn't want the college kids, their attitudes, or their culture at the time. So they moved them into the middle of nowhere, where the good residents of the town could ignore them. (Come to think of it, that campus is still out in the middle of nowhere today, the shopping area has just grown to the point where you can bicycle to it. Walking is still out of the question.)

No doubt our Schwinn dealer stocked an early Varsity and Continental, because the factory would expect him to. They were also probably shoved way in the back, because during my infrequent visits to the shop, I never noticed them. Derailleur gears? Those were something you saw on the high end Stingrays when they first appeared. And I remember the kid or two mangling them like mad because they didn't have a clue.

I was a little ahead of the curve at the time. I knew what the Tour de France was, and actually heard results of the race because back then I was a rabid short wave radio enthusiast, listening to foreign broadcasts nightly. While I found it interesting, it still paled to the reports I was getting of the 'Rocker/Mod wars' going on in England at the time. I immediately identified with the Rockers, although it would be about twelve years before I got my first motorcycle.

Somewhere along the line, I have a feeling my 60's bicycle experiences were a lot more typical for the majority of Americans than those who lived in the big cities. In 1968 I moved to Erie, PA; by the fall of '69 I had dragged that old Jaguar out of the storage shed, cleaned it up and used it for daily transportation because I couldn't stand riding the city bus. It was probably another year or two before I walked into either of the two bicycle shops owned by members of the Adams family . . . . and this is when I finally started seeing lightweight derailleur bikes. And rather quickly got a mechanics jobs at A.R. Adams Cycle (the older shop) due to the intercession of my Assistant Dean of Students, as I was keeping the maintenance up on his '68 Raleigh Sprite (S5), and he thought I was absolutely brilliant working the wrenches.

It was still another year or so until I got my first 10-speed.

late

I got a 69 Varsity and went off to college.

My classmates all had Italian bikes, and they were delicate. Somebody always got a flat or bent a rim. My bike was slower, but it was next to indestructible. I loaded it down with about 50 pounds (seemed like it, anyway) of war surplus camping gear, and rode to the next state for a weekend long battle of the bands.

The music was horrible, the ride was epic. I didn't bring so much as a patch kit. I don't remember my bike ever letting me down.

I was jealous of those expensive Italian jobs at the time. But they couldn't tour, or ride home for a weekend, they were too fragile.

Slightspeed

The first "10 speed" i ever saw was my older cousin's Schwinn Continental. I just had to have one. I was about 10, and riding a Raynal three speed "English Racer", that I had put drop bars on. I loved that bike, and rode it everywhere. Finally my wonderful folks spoiled me with a candy apple red Continental. I loved that Schwinn, especially the paint. Then a big time bike race came to town, and my friend and I entered the junior race, me on the 40 lb. Schwinn, and he on his equally unsuited Falcon. The real racers showed up with their exotic Italian steeds that we had never even heard of plus few fancy Schwinn Paramounts. We soon decided that if it wasn't Italian, it wasn't worth riding (except the Paramounts).

When our folks decided we were serious (think, "Breaking Away") we traded the Continental in on a new '64 Legnano Roma Olympiade. My buddy got a copper brown Bianchi Specialissima, both with full Campy drivetrains. We found a local bike shop to sponsor us with parts and service, and my younger brother got a loaner Urago to race, too. We were off to the races.

Years later, my friend sold his Bianchi, moved on to motos, and gained a lot of weight. Friends since 1st grade, we're 70 now, he sold his motos, and I'm trying to nudge him back to riding his Centurion Le Mans. I still have, love and ride the Legnano. I have a couple of modern Chinese made carbon, and a couple of old steel Raleighs, but back in the 60s, if it wasn't Italian, it wasn't worth riding. (I still have an old Paramount on my bucket list )


My shiny new Legnano, 1964.


Our club, back in the day, my friend on the left on his new Bianchi, me on the right.

Still riding the Legnano at this year's Eroica 55 years later.

sykerocker 

Slightspeed, you're reminding me why I was both jealous as hell and hating everyone who lived in California during the 60's, while I was stuck in Western Pennsylvania. And the bicycles weren't really on my horizon. The weather, cars, motorcycles and rock and roll were enough.

Cougrrcj

'Enthusiast cyclists' didn't exist when I was growing up in the '60s and early '70s. At least there weren't any that I ever saw in the far-outer 'country' suburbs of Cleveland..

repechage

One can tell Slightspeed is no longer racing as his handlebar tape is no longer white.

I had a reasonably wide scope of travel when I was nine in West Los Angeles in 1970- about 4 miles- noted bike shop addresses from the phone book and used the then ubiquitous Thomas Street Guide to locate them. It was interesting that at the cusp of the bike boom the limits of offerings- shops had stuff but not all sizes.
Many small European brands were imported directly by the shops. Rare was a Schwinn shop having a Paramount in the store- if they did it was often the shop owner's personal bike. I saw Legnano, Hetchins, Gitane, Bertin, LeJeune, Bob Jackson, a bike called The Dura, Raleigh of course, Peugeot, Lygie, Atala, Cinelli.

wanted to get to Pasadena to see what a Masi was.

sykerocker 

Since you lived in that area: I have memories of a bicycle shop that did a lot of sales in high end bicycles, he was the Falcon dealer, located somewhere between Erie, PA and Cleveland, but cannot remember where or the shops name. To us in Erie, he was the Holy Grail of bicycle shops since he carried a lot of 'exotic' brands (essentially big name high end stuff). This would have been around 1973-4, as I went there to purchase my 531 tubed Falcon (in a gorgeous purple) that I built up with drillium Nuevo Record, High-e hubs, the first radially spoked front wheel seen in Erie, and a lot of gold anodized stuff. That was the winter where the Presque Isle Bicycle Club got into a custom build race between five or six of the most prominent members.

Any idea who I'm talking about?

Cougrrcj

Wrong side of Cleveland. I grew up on the far West side. Vinyards, farms... Wide open spaces. No Interstates until after I graduated from High School, so getting anywhere took forever on surface streets. Downtown Cleveland was 20+ miles away, and took almost an hour to DRIVE there. When I was taking my flying lessons from '74-76, the 'Northwest Practice Area' was over this rural area - and some more just across the Lorain County border. This was so our incessant buzzing around wouldn't disturb people on the ground. Now all of that is housing tracts... Many of the small private airports in the area were also converted to housing developments...

merziac

Not sure about 1970, but 73-74 you couldn't walk into a Schwinn dealer in PDX without seeing Paramounts.

Gateway Schwinn that was close to my house usually had several mainly Chrome ones in stock and on display. There was a very affluent part of town nearby that very well could have had something to do with that but all The Schwinn shops normally had Pmounts in stock.

Gateway Schwinn was across the street from Honda Norwest and Yamaha East so I could spend all day pestering bike shop guys and drooling over Paramounts, Elsinores, Husky's, CZ's, Bultaco's, John Player Norton Specials, Triumph X-75 Hurricane's, MX + YZ's and everthing in between.

It was a great vortex of 2 wheel cool, I spent a lot of time in those shops.

Later on in high school we had a bike shop in a friends garage for a while, the Schwinn shop figured out we worked on some of "their" bikes and wouldn't sell us parts anymore which pretty much shut us down as the next closest shop was too far away to get to and from in a timely manner for same day repairs.

sykerocker 

You means there's civilization west of Lakewood?

Sorry about that. Spent a lot of my childhood there. Mom's one sister was the housekeeper at (formerly) Sts. Cyril & Methodius Roman Catholic Church, her brother and family lived six blocks east of that, and the priests there were part of our 'unofficial family' being house guests 3-4 times a year.

And it drives me nuts. As vividly as my memories are of the Erie years/glam rock/Bike Boom, I absolutely cannot remember that bike shop. If I didn't remember building that Falcon and riding it, I'd say that whole memory was a latent acid trip.

Cougrrcj

Nope, not really. Not back then, LOL!

Heck, Lakewood was a ten mile ride from my house - to get to Wings Hobby Shop... I was in Westlake from 1962-76 Less than 10k residents back then in almost 16 sq mi. Now there are more like 40k residents. North Ridgeville, Avon, and Sheffield were mostly farms, vinyards and orchards...

rustystrings61 

I briefly owned the Raleigh Lenton's sister, a Rudge Pathfinder Grand Prix 8-speed that had been purchased in the Chicago area and used for AYH tours. It was a lovely bike with 531 plain gauge tubing and Cyclo Benelux derailleurs. I also briefly had a 10-speed Lenton Grand Prix with a rod-operated front changer. Those would qualify and would have been more widely available.