Originally Posted by
unterhausen
50 years ago was 1972, the biggest differences are that in 1972 the bikes had better paint jobs. And the riders actually used their drops a lot of the time.
In 1972, freewheels with five sprockets were the norm on frames with 120mm rear dropout spacing, lugged and brazed frames were the norm but the more expensive were silver soldered lugged frames. Clincher tires that were 27 inch (630mm) were the norm, typically 27 X 1 1/4, the tires were slow, tubes were Shrader. A lot of bikes were sold with tubular tires simply because the crappy clinchers of the day. Indexed shifting was just something that you would dream about, the few attempts to make indexed shifting was not successful enough to obtain a foothold in the market. Unless you spent a fortune, your bike weighed a ton. The better handlebar tape was cloth, the plastic handlebar tape that was sold on most bikes was dismal but looked nice to the marketing department. The galvanized non-butted spokes were not so great. Nuts and bolts, almost nothing used allen wrenches and you often rounded off the flats with adjustable wrenches. It was a rare bike that had brazed on fittings for water bottle cages, the typical cage was sold with metal straps that strapped the cage to your frame, the nuts and bolts were galvanized and were rusting in a few years. Your Tour de France wonder bike still weighed over 20 pounds with either a Brooks Pro or an Ideale (spell?) leather saddle depending on where the bike was made. And I have not even started on derailleurs yet. LEDs for lights?, what is that?