Old 08-09-21, 06:33 AM
  #25  
steelbikeguy
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Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN
The bike shop I worked at was Wheel Goods in Minneapolis. If that is the catalog I think you are citing, the shop I worked at produced and sold stuff from that catalog. The owner of the store also had a number of distribution contracts with European manufacturers. If you bought a Raleigh in Iowa or a Gitane in Indiana, the owner of our shop made money. It was a big operation.

That was half a century ago so I do not remember much in detail, but I think wheel building was reserved for about three mechanics that were keepers of the secret arts. Everybody trued wheels, but with the shortage of truing stands, most of use just used the bike frame or fork and rim brake pads as our truing stands. To this day I do not own or use a truing stand. The catalog did not have any spoke wrenches in it, but it had a wide variety of nipple grippers.
Cyclo-Pedia was run by Gene Portuesi in Cadillac, Michigan. The catalog says he started his importing business in the 30's. Not sure when he started the catalog. I liked it because it was a handy way to mail-order European stuff, especially the little bits.
The first catalog that I had (and still have) was the 11th edition, dating to around the mid 70's. The catalog doesn't have prices printed in it. Instead, there was a separate price sheet.
The cover of this edition of the catalog:



The wheel building instructions were typical of the era... heavy on text, and light on graphics. Still, that was good enough, and I don't recall struggling with the concepts much. Here are the first two pages ......




Steve in Peoria
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