What is your quintessential Silver Era, USA bike boom bicycle (circa 1965-1975)
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What is your quintessential Silver Era, USA bike boom bicycle (circa 1965-1975)
quintessential= adj., of or relating to the most perfect embodiment of something. What bicycle available during this time do you see as the "quintessential" example? Just as a starter, and one that many have commented on before, would be the Peugeot U0-8. This bike seemed to be plentiful in numbers, and was available thru the whole boom period. It typifies, by being French, the boom period manufacturer/supplier, that being Europe; later in the period, Japan built bikes took a bigger share of the American market. It certainly represented a change in the American market, or, possibly, drove a change, from the bullet proof products of Schwinn, to the lighter bike of Europe.
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I would say the Peugeot PX-10. It was probably the most available and affordable "true" racing bike one could hope to buy.
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Raleigh: Record, Raleigh Grand Prix, Super Course, and Super Course MK II.
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Lower-middle class: Sears Free Spirit. They sold a ton of those, and Schwinns were out of reach.
Folks who lived near a Schwinn dealer and had the money, perhaps the top 1% in my home town: Continental.
Urban dwellers with access to funds and information: Peugeot UO-8, the only foreign bike I saw until about 1981.
Top of the line: Cinelli Super Corsa 1972-on: For those that had the knowledge and the money, generally guided by bike shops.
I was simply not exposed to any market other than catalog sales and other people's Schwinns until I entered the service and got around a bit.
Heck, the largest TV/Electronics dealer around gave away 10-speed bikes during a huge promotion every year. Those were 2/3 of what I saw during the boom.
Folks who lived near a Schwinn dealer and had the money, perhaps the top 1% in my home town: Continental.
Urban dwellers with access to funds and information: Peugeot UO-8, the only foreign bike I saw until about 1981.
Top of the line: Cinelli Super Corsa 1972-on: For those that had the knowledge and the money, generally guided by bike shops.
I was simply not exposed to any market other than catalog sales and other people's Schwinns until I entered the service and got around a bit.
Heck, the largest TV/Electronics dealer around gave away 10-speed bikes during a huge promotion every year. Those were 2/3 of what I saw during the boom.
Last edited by RobbieTunes; 12-12-15 at 01:55 PM.
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Raleigh Sports--never out of style!
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I'd have to 2nd the vote for Free-Spirit.
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Here's what I was riding back then. It was an ultracool ride. (then)
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In my opinion, the single most important game-changer make and model was the 1970 American Eagle Semi-Pro (Nishiki Competition). OK, I admittedly rode a 1971 for 20 years and 40k miles, until the seat tube lug broke off of the bottom bracket. I assert that this was the first decent-quality mass-produced Japanese bicycle offered to the mass market in the US. Suddenly the image of poor quality bicycles from Japan was being challenged, even though I do not consider this world class, as its late 1970s successors were.
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Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069
"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069
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I turned 18 in 1970. The bike I lusted after was the Cinelli Super Corsa in the Black Chrome finish at Spence Wolf's shop in Cupertino, Calif. The bike I could afford and bought was a Peugeot PX-10. But for me the Cinelli will always be the Quintessential.
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The one I remember is the Puch 'Clubman'. I had one back around 1970, great bicycle until it got stolen. After that I was back riding a Schwinn Suburban.
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Silver Era? That intrigues me more than the question.
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"Firenze" was TV Lenny's (Len Matioli) brand. One year he got dinged by the CPSC and had to "upgrade" the brakes on all his bikes with Mathauser pads. When I lived in Madison, I used to scavenge those pads from bikes left on the curb at the end of the semester. I still have a set on one of my bikes.
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Yeah, except that at twice the price of my UO-8 when I bought it I wouldn't call the PX-10 affordable. "Bike-boom" implies lots of people buyin' 'em. Which they did of course, but not at the PX-10 level. Only people who bought them were people already in the bike-riding end of the gene pool. Real boomers didn't buy racing bikes, they bought "racing bikes".
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I had a Raleigh Record in the early 70s, but I'd say the Schwinn Varsity would have been the most common boom bike. Pug UO-8s were more common at the university.
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In the early to mid 70's I got one of those yellow Huffy Scouts from Santa. Rode it many a mile! It was a nice upgrade from walking. One day I was booking it across a golf course at high speed between tee shots when the left brake lever slipped off and went into the front spokes. It jammed in front of the fork. This tore all of the spokes out of the rim and they wrapped around the front hub like a spool of wire. It happened on a gravel/dirt cart path. Instead of a crash, I just came to a sudden stop as the fork/hub dug into the ground. Very similar looking to when a camel goes down on it's front knees first to let the rider dismount. I had to pick it all and walk about 2 miles home.
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I consider the 1890's the golden age bike boom. During the decade, bikes became the "go to" mode of transportation, continously replacing animals and animal-drawn-vehicles for more-and-more of the general public. It was only later that the bike was matched and then surpassed by the internal combustion engine powered vehicle.
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I think your kidding, but the bike shop I worked at... back in the seventies, way before I got their, they sold Kabuki's with those cast aluminum lugged frames. History probably views this design as "klunky" and "heavy", but the gentlemen who was working there at the time (and still does) said that they were on par with a lot of bikes sold at the time. For one thing, they used a lot of japan made components (that worked as well or better than euro ones) and they came more assembled than euro models (time = money) . And, most importantly, they were available... whereas Schwinn's (it was a Schwinn authorized dealership) were non-existent.
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In the early to mid 70's I got one of those yellow Huffy Scouts from Santa. Rode it many a mile! It was a nice upgrade from walking. One day I was booking it across a golf course at high speed between tee shots when the left brake lever slipped off and went into the front spokes. It jammed in front of the fork. This tore all of the spokes out of the rim and they wrapped around the front hub like a spool of wire. It happened on a gravel/dirt cart path. Instead of a crash, I just came to a sudden stop as the fork/hub dug into the ground. Very similar looking to when a camel goes down on it's front knees first to let the rider dismount. I had to pick it all and walk about 2 miles home.
Another time my brother and I were coming home from baseball practice with my mom and younger brother behind us in a car. My brother was in front on his red and white 10 speed. He was looking around and didn't dodge a soda can. He doesn't do a front end over. It was more of a skid and barrel roll. We get his bike into the car and my mom takes him to the emergency room. He had to get some stitches in his head. I rode back to the house. How we made it through those years I will never know. It seems like someone was going to the hospital at least once a month. How my mom was able to keep her sanity is another mystery.
Last edited by seypat; 12-12-15 at 11:55 PM.
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Yeah, except that at twice the price of my UO-8 when I bought it I wouldn't call the PX-10 affordable. "Bike-boom" implies lots of people buyin' 'em. Which they did of course, but not at the PX-10 level. Only people who bought them were people already in the bike-riding end of the gene pool. Real boomers didn't buy racing bikes, they bought "racing bikes".
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...at the U of Maryland and around D.C. in general when i was in college there from '71-'75, I'd venture a guess that the majority of drop barred bikes i saw were gaspipe Peugeot. I think I ran through three or four in those years and immediately after. But i was not buying new bikes. There were also a crappe tonne of 3 speed Raleighs and Raleigh products with lesser names on them that were going begging, because everyone and his uncle wanted a "10 speed bike". So I ended up riding around town on those a lot, because they didn't get stolen as much.
I didn't have a what would be considered a "decent" bike (in terms of the frame tubing and components) until I fished a middle of the line Stella out of a pile in a salvage yard in about 1983 or 84.
I now realize it was most probably stolen. Like some others, I remember thinking that the guys who could afford Schwinns must be trust funders.
I didn't have a what would be considered a "decent" bike (in terms of the frame tubing and components) until I fished a middle of the line Stella out of a pile in a salvage yard in about 1983 or 84.
I now realize it was most probably stolen. Like some others, I remember thinking that the guys who could afford Schwinns must be trust funders.
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