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Classic & vintage road icons....?

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Classic & vintage road icons....?

Old 06-27-22, 08:26 PM
  #26  
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‘76 ROMIC GRAND TOURER
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Old 06-28-22, 04:43 AM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by BFisher
Like it or not - Schwinn Varsity. It's the bike that got many on the road. Oozes nostalgia.
Mine
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Old 06-28-22, 05:46 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by steelbikeguy
At least here in the USA in the 70's, the Raleigh and Schwinn shops had a fairly large presence. As such, many of us grew up with our noses pressed against the shop window and lust in our hearts! ... it wasn't just me, was it?....

Quite a few of the bikes in those Raleigh catalogs are seared into my brain! I did buy the semi-iconic Gran Sport in the lagoon blue with white panels and rode that for a long time. Much later, I picked up a mint International in the copper paint, which is probably between semi-iconic and iconic. There is still a part of me that would like to have one of the blue mink & silver Professionals, though!
From the catalog that I held onto for so long... the Mark IV Raleigh Pro.



After I got my International, I lucked into a 753 Team frame! I think it's just as iconic as the Pro, and since it was widely raced, probably even more so.
Here's mine, and it rides just wonderfully!



Steve in Peoria
This raises an interesting aspect to the OP question. He said “A 60s- mid 70s white PX-10 is immediately recognizable and conjures a nostalgia even among folks who haven’t ridden a bike in years. So should the extent of recognition to be considered for the title “icon”? I, for obvious reasons, prefer the Mk IV but clearly the SBDU bikes are revered but to a limited audience. I was unaware of SBDU until “ages hence”. Just a guy in the neighborhood chasing girls. The Mink blue Pro would have much more recognizable. Some exquisite Italian bikes were worth a pedestal but most folks would say “gee, never heard of that one.”
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Old 06-28-22, 06:34 AM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by steelbikeguy
At least here in the USA in the 70's, the Raleigh and Schwinn shops had a fairly large presence. As such, many of us grew up with our noses pressed against the shop window and lust in our hearts! ... it wasn't just me, was it?....

Quite a few of the bikes in those Raleigh catalogs are seared into my brain! I did buy the semi-iconic Gran Sport in the lagoon blue with white panels and rode that for a long time. Much later, I picked up a mint International in the copper paint, which is probably between semi-iconic and iconic. There is still a part of me that would like to have one of the blue mink & silver Professionals, though!
From the catalog that I held onto for so long... the Mark IV Raleigh Pro.


Steve in Peoria
That was my bike. I remember attending the world championship amateur road race in Montreal in 1974 and seeing several Raleigh Pros in the peloton. I wasn't able to go to the professional race a couple of days later when Eddie won the title

Last edited by alcjphil; 06-29-22 at 07:13 AM.
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Old 06-28-22, 06:56 AM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by BFisher
Like it or not - Schwinn Varsity. It's the bike that got many on the road. Oozes nostalgia.
I think this is the correct answer. The grail bikes grab more attention, but it's the everyman/daily bikes that make the world go around. Same for this component.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/201638067551
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Old 06-28-22, 09:36 AM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by Prowler
This raises an interesting aspect to the OP question. He said “A 60s- mid 70s white PX-10 is immediately recognizable and conjures a nostalgia even among folks who haven’t ridden a bike in years. So should the extent of recognition to be considered for the title “icon”? I, for obvious reasons, prefer the Mk IV but clearly the SBDU bikes are revered but to a limited audience. I was unaware of SBDU until “ages hence”. Just a guy in the neighborhood chasing girls. The Mink blue Pro would have much more recognizable. Some exquisite Italian bikes were worth a pedestal but most folks would say “gee, never heard of that one.”
yep.... it seems to be very specific to the culture that one is immersed in.
For me in the early 70's, a Schwinn LeTour might have been the most exotic bike most folks would be exposed to. Compared to a Varsity, it was clearly lighter, faster, and better. A Schwinn Paramount would be even more aspirational, but nobody had anything that refined.

A handful of years later, while in the Marines, a buddy had an Eisentraut, which I knew nothing about. For that era, he might have been one of the top 5 framebuilders in the country! (sounds like a topic for a new thread). My buddy had grown up in San Diego, one of the cycling hot spots, so he was exposed to just about anything that might exist. We would have very different ideas of what would be iconic, no doubt.

Steve in Peoria
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Old 06-28-22, 09:40 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by bikingshearer
Meh. You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a Cinelli
Not around these parts...
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Old 06-28-22, 09:43 AM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by BFisher
Like it or not - Schwinn Varsity. It's the bike that got many on the road. Oozes nostalgia.
for me it's the Schwinn Continental! My father kept the one he bought when he was 15 after saving up money from mowing lawns. As I got into my teens and was tall enough to ride it, it was my first journey into road cycling. I still have the frameset and intend on doing a "lightweight" resto mod one of these days.
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Old 06-28-22, 10:13 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by krakhaus
What's more iconic than this?

If you take a closer look at the movie though, it tells the real story. Dave and his bike, were both anomalies in the town depicted in the movie. The far more recognizable and familiar bicycles were/are the average single speed, coaster brake bike.

Also, to answer the question, it could be the Masi-Trek that was heavily debated.

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Old 06-28-22, 10:21 AM
  #35  
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We all like to talk about those epic racing machines. This is probably closer in some form/fashion to the way people were introduced and experienced cycling, at least in the formative years.



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Old 06-28-22, 11:23 AM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by BFisher
Like it or not - Schwinn Varsity. It's the bike that got many on the road. Oozes nostalgia.
In America no doubt. Perhaps Peugeot for Europe? or just France/Belgium?
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Old 06-28-22, 01:01 PM
  #37  
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I imagine that 3rensho would fit into the iconic class. Can’t think of the early 80s without dreaming I owned one.
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Old 06-28-22, 02:48 PM
  #38  
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I would put a blue Gios on the list for sure.
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Old 06-28-22, 05:13 PM
  #39  
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For those who favor "the road less traveled," Capo Sieger, anyone?

This specimen is from the early 1950s and features Capo brand derailleurs. My 1960 Siegers came with Campag. Gran Sport.
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Old 06-28-22, 05:25 PM
  #40  
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I don't know about C&V me, but the teenager me would have said "Schwinn LeTour, in Pearl Orange" was iconic (or at least semi-iconic). And I think the teenage bicycle fans around me would agreed. It had the Schwinn name (that's when we thought Schwinn was the top of the crop), and could be accessorized to meet all our bicycle adventure needs, as soon as we had the shop install the alloy wheel upgrades, ditch the bike safety levers, swap for downtube shifters, and install a Pletscher rack on the back (to lug our studios books around). None of us would have touched a Varsity or Continental.


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Old 06-28-22, 06:26 PM
  #41  
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Schwinns, particularly the Varsity, the miami vice ironman and mid-range raleighs seem to be it to me. Other than the PX-10, arguably the most iconic.
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Old 06-28-22, 06:49 PM
  #42  
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Originally Posted by gugie
Firenze


Buy a stereo, get a bike!
Been there, did that. What was the store?
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Old 06-28-22, 07:38 PM
  #43  
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Some of the bikes mentioned are iconic and others are more in the “unobtainable” category for me when I was young and these bikes were new. I loved my root beer brown Varsity in the first few years I rode it and it was a true icon. When I rode it to high school there were many who had them in various colors. It wasn’t until maybe the mid seventies (after HS) when my eye wandered away from the icon and towards a more practical bike for longer , faster riding. I knew about the PX10 , a friend had one but it was the lighter Japanese bikes that caught my eye , not any icon bike.
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Old 06-28-22, 08:14 PM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by VRJAKE
Been there, did that. What was the store?
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Old 06-28-22, 08:25 PM
  #45  
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Huffy

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Old 06-28-22, 08:30 PM
  #46  
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Originally Posted by P!N20
Huffy

Well, to be totally honest, when I was 9 or 10 a Huffy Santa Fe was all the rage in the neighborhood......


(maybe not with that kind of cable routing......)

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Old 06-28-22, 08:36 PM
  #47  
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Iconic enough for me … 1988 Cannondale Black Lightning
JD
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Old 06-29-22, 07:12 AM
  #48  
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Kind of surprised that this one has not been mentioned, unless I missed it somewhere

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Old 06-29-22, 07:39 AM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by rccardr
Kind of surprised that this one has not been mentioned, unless I missed it somewhere

I posted an entire thread about that one a couple weeks ago.

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Old 06-29-22, 07:52 AM
  #50  
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Never heard of the Peugeot PX-10. Peugeots just weren't very plentiful in the land of Schwinn and Western States Imports, growing up in the 1970s/1980. I must have been about 10 or 11 in the mid-1970s when my best friend allowed me to see his mom's Schwinn Varsity or World or whatever it was in his garage, and spoke of it in reverent tones. He told me Schwinn was basically the best bike you could buy. Later, visiting the bike shop, the high-end Centurions did it for me. When I started learning more about bikes, any Bianchi in Celeste was "iconic." And I don't even like Bianchis much--but I understood their significance. Even in the mid-1980s, still never heard of the Peugeot. A Cinelli SC was basically unobtanium then, and outside of the Interbike shows, only one bike shop I knew had one--and they weren't about to part with it unless it was for full retail.
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