5 mph

Back in the late 70's , early 80's, as many of you remember, Bikes were still attached to your memory as something you rode in Junior High to deliver newspapers.
The late 70's and early 80's were a funny time. Mary Tyler Moore, which I watched with Dad and Mom every Saturday night, came to an end and my happy childhood was over. So was my paper route and my bike lay idle and we gave it to a neighbor.
A lot of things were suddenly strangely not Cool when we were in High School at that time . Being seen with your parents was one . Taking the bus to school was really shameful. Being a good student was not respected.
Riding a bike? That meant you were immature and attached to your junior high days. Do any of you even remember a Bike Rack at school?
My parents were immigrants and that made me an outsider.
This was what I remember the cool kids were do ing. Listening to Hotel California. Fleetwood Mac. They all had access to a car and a Trans Am or Camaro from the 60's was the prize. Being underage and having a beer. Blue Jean's , being a jock.
Bikes? You might as well have been talking slide rule, flood pants, mom cut your hair, taking the Bus to school, all of which were part of my life.
I sprouted 60 pounds of muscles suddenly and made the football team. Their was some humour pile driving a once former terrifying bully onto his back over and over until he hid from me in drills. The same terror I had of him was in his eyes now. Didn't do much good, once an outsider, always an outsider, I deserved a starting slot and never got one. Never got close to the cool crowd.
Anyway back to the theme. In 1980, never dreamed riding a Bike daily would be an obsession, did you?

davester

You are way younger than me. When I was in high school very few kids could afford cars, though a few did, including me eventually. I rode my bike all through high school and then at university in the mid 1970s. In fact the bike racks at UC Berkeley were absolutely packed. That was when the 1970s bike boom occurred and everyone owned bikes. I guess they became uncool much later. Hotel California didn't come out until my graduation year from college. Probably about the same timeline for many here.

reconnaissance

We seem about the same age, but I grew up in rural Idaho so I have a little different perspective. Consolidating the high school brought students in from all over our county. Riding the bus was necessary unless you had a job and therefore would drive. To cover the distances on a bicycle was just not practical especially since ice and winter conditions begin in October and end in March. This just leaves a few weeks of weather agreeable to cycling. But to see fear in the eyes of a former bully, that’s gratifying.

cheers,

woodcraft

I was on the other end of the spectrum- graduated early '70s, rode bike 9 miles to school, smoked weed, & had nothing to do with jocks.

In the several years after, rode across the country and two other long tours around the west, and rode three double centuries, etc..

reverborama

The bike went into the garage as soon as I had my driver's license. It was cars and motorcycles except for a brief period in the mid-80's when I worked at an auto parts store and, ironically, couldn't afford a car so I bicycled to work. In Minnesota. In December. Then it was back to cars and motorcycles until I took a trip to Italy in 2001 and signed up for a bike tour around Florence on a whim. Been riding pretty much non-stop since then.

79pmooney

I was always an outsider at school. Enough so that biking didn't make me more so. Instead, it was the safe place I could go, my refuge. Didn't ride at college until senior year when I lived 3 miles off campus. (I went back to the university 12 years later. Ran into one of my old profs. He saw my riding gear and told me about a long-haired engineering student that rode all winter BITD with some admiration. I got to tell him that was me!)

Funny, your memories in music. Hotel California happened during my bike racing and head injury days. I missed it entirely. Fleetwood Mac, now that's a different story. I went to see them in 10th grade. Wow! (But - no hit songs and no women in the band. I saw the original members. Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer on guitars. They played the blues.)

downtube42

I had no aspirations of being a cool kid, and i found cycling more freeing than anything else. Even when i had a motorcycle and car, I rode. My HS biology teacher was David Blase, who was the real life inspiration for Dave in Breaking Away. Between his example of cycling, and the annual bike race he put on at school, cycling remained pretty chill. Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Brothers, Linda Ronstadt were the tunes of my HS years. Once working, i couldn't afford gas and parking for my downtown job, so i commuted by bike way before that was cool. Same when i started college.

I have never not ridden a bike. Occasionally what's cool comes around and hits where i happen to be, then it moves on.

alo

The culture was different in the cities, to what it was in the small towns. I grew up in a smaller town in Australia, and everybody accepted everybody. Nobody was left out or excluded. Nobody felt bad about riding a bike. There were those who liked the powerful cars as they got older, but they didn't exclude those who didn't have one.

I suggest, those having children in the future, or with young children, look for such a town. They will grow up much more genuine, not having to play the mind games many people play.

If you get outside Western culture, it is different again.

Kabuki12

When I was in high school you had to get to school early to get a spot on the bike rack. It was always full and then you would have to lock it to a chain link fence by the basket ball courts. Bicycles were our freedom .

tigat

74 high school grad, but a definite lack of focus on my part, I guess, or maybe just a lack of definition.

Smoked pot, was jock, rode an Italian made 10 speed, made good grades, spent and enjoyed time with my parents, girlfriend (now wife) was a cheerleader.

During football season I took some flack from coaches and teammates because I had dropped basketball for skiing, but when our ski team brought home the state title senior year (the first in any sport in the school's 75 year history), they were all cheering at the celebration assembly.

In a three class high school with 1600 students, it was rare to see 30 cars in the student parking section, and a bus flotilla brought in classmates from the surrounding farm communities. I agree with K 12's assessment that "bicycles were our freedom." When back in my hometown, I still ride with some guys I started riding with 50 years ago.

Wildwood 

Bus to school, haircuts from Mom, one family car, one family bike, jeans with patches, white shirt for church on Sunday..

Yeah, growing up on the less privileged side of life wasn't so cool.

But now all that matters is family close, a few friends and some hobbies to enjoy. Bikes to ride and wrench is part of the daily satisfaction equation.

5 mph

That was us, one family car. Mom never learned to drive. There weren't many Chinese people in that town in Delaware and in the US at that time in general so she was locked in the house for forty years without friends.
But you are right, I still keep to myself and wrench a lot on cars but I have a close happy family .Wrench on cars is easier than wrenching on bikes. Keep overtightening and stripping bolts!

jppe

I appreciate Fleetwood Mac more today than I did I the 80’s! Great music with a crazy history of tumultuous relationships.

I rode in college out of convenience......until I warped my rear tire hitting a drainage grate going to visit a girl in another town. I was able to somehow ride it back but Just left it in the bike rack beside the dorm. I wonder if it’s still there? I didn’t start riding again until I was 50 years old. That’s probably okay as it still feels fresh. Not many people rode bikes where I lived other than kids though.

Classtime 

Class of '76. Borrowed a buddies Charger for the prom. Bikes were always cool. We had one of these:


The drivetrain wasn't robust enough for me and my brother.

My girlfriend convinced me to get a driver's license and a car in 1984.

joesch

I feel the same.
Hotel CA release in 76 and I was starting Jr HS.
Did not have an American Muscle car like many of my privileged friends but atleast had access to the family Maveric when I needed to get out.
I lived next to my Jr & Sr HS so did not have to feel bad about not driving to school and did not have that way to skip classes and get away during the school day.
I played sports including tennis which was a "sissy" sport back then.
Always biked and it was the cool way to get around the campus at college.

AlmostTrick

I had to take one bus to the public school and then wait around for a second to shuttle me to my parochial high school. Because of this wait time, I could jump on my bike whenever I missed the first bus and still make the 10 mile commute on time. I missed the first bus quite often! My school was small, (160 grad class) and I don't remember ever seeing another bike there.

Bought my first car from the manager of the bike shop I worked at my senior year in '77. It was a '67 fastback Mustang, the Steve McQueen Bullitt car!



I was the man! Not many at school even had cars, let alone cool ones, but there was one guy with a '70 Nova and another with an early 70's Charger. I must admit it did make it much easier to pick up girls!

mercator

Graduated in '76. I wasn't a jock, but made the track team as a distance runner. Took the bus to school.
Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles were on the radio, but my friends and I bought Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd albums.
I still had my bike that had got me back and forth to junior high school, but I trashed it learning how to mountain bike.

Helderberg

I rode everywhere as a kid. It was an escape from my home life and my jet plane on the sidewalk. Got away from riding in high school, got a job, bought a car and commuted to collage. I was a "jock" in school, Football, indoor and outdoor track, threw the shot, but never fit in with the A-crowd. In collage I was up for the draft, did not want to be drafted as I had always wanted to join the Air Force. Joined the AF, served out my enlistment and came home to an ungrateful country in 1972. I started riding again as it helped with the crap in my head. Had to stop when I blew out a disk and lost the use of my left leg Had surgery and was told to never get back on a bike. When I retired in 2014 I decided I would try riding again and bought a used Schwinn MTB anchor but loved it. Got a hybrid, then a second better hybrid, then a gravel bike. Still ride to help with the stuff in my head, along with the help from the VA, it is a huge improvement in my internal life. Music for me was the Beach Boys, The very early Beatles, Ventures, Dave Clark 5, Stones, Doors. I still listen to most of these groups as I just don't get the new "music" but then again, I am old. Be safe all and ride on.
Frank.

locolobo13 

Went to HS in the early 70s. Walked the 1.5 mi each way not because bikes were uncool. The bike parking area was a trap. One narrow entrance in and out. Walking there were many exits leaving school.

Can't tell you how many times some poor schmuk was ambushed, usually by 4-5 kids on 1, at the bike parking area. Rough school. When I got a job at 16, I walked each way to school, 3 mi RT, then rode my bike 6 mi to work.

Sure the kids who drove their cars to school were "cool". That was a different kind of trap. They spent most of their money, time and energy buying and fixing those klunkers.

vjbknife

I graduated in 1973 from High School in Maryland and I guess things were a little different there I rode my bike a lot and was just learning of the Italian bikes and dumped the Schwinn Super Sport for an Atala with a Campy Gruop. I rode one while in Diving School in California and for the rest of my life pretty much. I love riding today but have never been interested in doing it competitively. Mostly for my enjoyment and as a personal challange and as transportation. I also had a 1970 Road Runner which was a great car but when gas started going up it was not that great. I have lived in 13 different states and overseas and have always had at least one bike. I live in Hawaii now and have 3.

Rage

When I was in high school and college in 1990s NYC, it might have been the opposite for me.
I was already volunteering at transportation alternatives and BikeNY and was heavily involved in the downtown Manhattan bike scene. Hung around bike shops, was a bike messenger, dated East Village hipster chicks, the whole shebang.
An indulgent, younger uncle passed on his car to me when I was a junior/senior in high school. I was super-enthused until later that night when it took me over an hour to find parking.
I spent another week driving that car around Manhattan until the parking situation made me me so insane I drove it up to our queens house and left it in the garage for years lol.
Never missed it and it never impacted my social standing.

jon c. 

I graduate HS in 74 or 75. Throughout school and beyond, we lived on our bicycles.

There were no bike racks at school as the theft problem was too great. But a friend's sister lived a block away so we'd lock them on her back porch. Evenings were usually spent riding around in the park or the cemetery, drinking beer and engaging in whatever other illicit things we could get our hands on.

Random11

I ran track and cross country in high school.No car, and after-school practice meant I was too late to take the school bus home. How did I get home? Hitch-hiked.

Wileyrat

Class of 77 here. I rode bikes throughout my HS years even though I had a motorcycle, in fact, I bought my first lbs bike with paper route money right before I quit the route and started HS.

As far as the elementary and middle school bullies went, well, when you end up a middle weight varsity wrestler, those types tend to leave you alone. It's funny how they changed their tune with me.

Musically, listen to any classic rock station, and that was my HS playlist.

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skidder

I went to high school in the mid-1970s and riding a bicycle to school was nothing unusual, many kids did it, especially beach cruisers since we lived near the beach. I remember the bicke racks at high school being crammed with lots of bikes of all different styles. Mine was a Schwinn Letour 10 speed, a real 'tank' of a bicycle but it got me everywhere. I've always had bicycles of some sort and ridden them regularly. I even found an old Letour on Craigslist and rebuilt it for cruising around the neighborhood.

Today: I still live near the high school I went to, and the bike racks are almost completely gone. The economic 'status(?) of the neighborhood has changed (more expensive) so lots of kids get driven to school (probably also due to today's parental paranoia). Most of the bicycles I see are 'roadies' ridden by folks all decked out in bicycle-specific riding gear (lycra, SPD-style shoes, etc), no real 'casual riding except those heading to the beach, maybe with a surfboard (rusty beach cruisers that get the job done without worry of theft). I also get inquiries from neighbors as to how I deal with the (perceived) danger of riding on the roads.