JunkYardBike

In the U.S., bicycles are either toys or race machines (sometimes both at the same time).

JunkYardBike

Well, we don't want to give kids the false impression that they can use bicycles as transportation when they are adults, do we?

treebound 

This:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...(picture-heavy)

I've got a 1967 Schwinn 2-speed in the garage with a bent chainstay I keep going back and forth on whether to keep it or dump it.

I'm surprised nobody posted the PeeWee Herman bike yet.

Elev12k

Frank's Ultimate is a good example. Yeti was all about innovation, racing, cultus.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...My-second-Yeti

From an international perspective the mountainbike did really change the landscape of the business and racing over the last couple of decades.

cudak888 

If nostalgia for the past is the key, I must echo Picchio Special. Schwinn Black Phantom.



-Kurt

Velognome 

I'm thinking in general it would be the post war schwinns, the Paperboy bike. Nothing more iconic than a paperboy making his rounds through a post-war tract home development.

Italuminium

Yes, I've been watching that bike (and his other works too!) with great interest. And I've also been reading up at the MOMBAT site and others sources on the early days of the MTB. I guess I'm more of a reader than a MTB'er since I don't even own one since the last one (red Batavus nitro with low end Shimano, nothing special) was stolen at the train station.

Hydrated

This. Definitely this.

lotek 

For me this is a difficult question, and varies by era.
Early track was an american sport, so do we say Oscar Waystyn
in the 20's and 30's? Paramount for 40's and 50's? (for racing at least)
for the rest of the country the Schwinn Black Phantom and yes columbia
balloon tire bikes. In the 60's things started changing, the 20 inched wheel
stingrays and krates probably were the defining bike
Early 70's? I don't remember, sorry I was mostly at university. . .
mid 70's to 80's Trek. They went from a small production shop
to one of the major players, and further on to become the 800
pound gorilla in the US bike market.

Marty

OldsCOOL

Motobecane??

bobn

A balloon tired tank bike with wide handlebars and a coaster brake. Either a Schwinn or Columbia.

TheOtherGuy

I think it depends on not only when you grew up, but also where. When I was a teen in the '70s... Schwinn Stingrays when you were small, and the bigger "beach cruisers" or a Varsity when you got taller. If you were one of the richer kids, maybe a Continental. The "cruisers" were great to ride if you only needed to go a couple miles, and had a surfboard under one arm and resting on padded handlebars... I used to leave my scratched-up old Schwinn cruiser just laying in the sand while out in the water, and nobody bothered it. They were everywhere then, along with beat up Varsity.

Old Chicago Schiwnn cruisers get my vote as being the most "American".

Puget Pounder

Waterfords and paramounts or those balloon cruisers.

gna

Ah, Henry Huggins. In one book he really, really wants a bicycle. In another a paper route. The Schwinn or Columbia cruiser are what pop into my mind.

dgodave

The modern mountain bike.
.
Its the USA's most meaningful contribution to cycling, on balance.
.

P_M

No beer holders?

-holiday76

just picture someone riding a mtb on the paved bike trail, or a fat guy on a race bike.

bobn

I think "The Other Guy" has it figured out. Depends on your generation.
I remember as a kid starting off on a Schwinn Henderson 20" and thinking of nothing but getting big enough to get on that 26 incher one way or another. It was a goal.
Most of the kids I grew up with felt the same. As long as you could ride it, it didn't matter if you had to use the top tube as a seat or stand on the pedals.
Most kids my age and size at the time had to stand on the pedals just to get that 50 pounder moving.
Parents bought the bike big, just like clothes or hand me down clothing figuring "he'll grow into it".
Little did they realize that one slip of the foot on the pedals and there go all the future generations and the family name.
That"s just the way it was way back when.
Yes, those big 26" tank bikes with the balloon tires.

RJM

Those Mongoose dual suspended things I see the guys riding around on, you know the ones where it is obvious they just got a DUI and have three months of riding to and fro work with plastic Walmart bags hanging off the handlebars, which is slightly coincidental because they bought the bike at Walmart.

Either that or a fat guy riding a Madone, flashy graphics, flashier paint with aero carbon race wheels.

Remember, the question is what bike defines America, not really what bike is America remembered for. I really think that current day, with the love of the automobile and how poor the infrastructure is for riding in this country the bike that defines American either has to be what every TdF winning wannabe is riding, even though they should probably focus on cutting some carbs out of their diet instead of buying a lighter chain or what someone has to ride when they are not able to drive due to a legal or economic issue. It just isn't a biking country...sadly.

Picchio Special

With full US Postal/Discovery Channel/Radioshack team kit, down to the shoe covers. Wonder if all those guys retired when Lance did.

20grit

I must be the only person in the world who gets nothing out of Treks. They do nothing for me. (sorry John)

I'm going with the bit about it depending on era, but overall... the cruiser is the 'Icon'.

The bike that is a product of America is definitely the Mountain bike. I don't think it's the iconic one though.

brianinc-ville

https://popwatch.ew.com/2007/02/09/pedal_power/

bikingshearer 

No, you're not alone. There are at least two of us.

Except for the 520. Bought one new in 1994. Excellent loaded touring bike for the bucks - it carried me and my panniers and camping gear on several fun, fully loaded trips. The dark green paint it sported then looked good, too. But not much else in the Trek line ever floated my boat. Nothing wrong with them, as far as I can tell, just nothing about them that makes my heart go pitter-patter.

753proguy

I think we need to think longer-term. America was here before 1950, or even 1938.

I'd nominate the old six-day racers of the early 1900s, or maybe something like the Wright Brothers' (style of bike). That was cycling's heyday in the USA, when a bike cost close to the price of a car, and was a status symbol, and with a few exceptions, it's been all downhill since then, status-of-the-bicyle-here-wise.....

753proguy

Agree regarding the early stuff, but that far back, it was Emil Wastyn (Oscar's dad) that was doing the building. Oscar was at the Heartland Velo Show in Madison recently (with an oh-so-cool chrome 1936 Wastyn Six-Day racer with wooden rims, etc. in immaculate condition. Whoa.... I was jealous.