Drillium Dude 

I love finding old catalogs from the late 70s and early 80s. Sometimes it's because I actually remember leafing through some of them back in the day, but the main reason I like 'em is to review info, prices - and every now and then some esoterica shows up.

I just received two such catalogs from a cool Ebayer yesterday: a 1979 Bikecology and a 1983 Pedal Pushers. I thought I'd share a few pics here.





The text in the upper right is intriguing: "Special anodized Campy parts package available in gold, red, blue, green, gray, black, bronze and purple. Add $100 over cost of parts." Wouldn't that white Super look awesome with a red-anodized Campy Nuovo Record gruppo?



Colors!



Details:



Hi-low:



Saddles:



Bullseye pulleys:



CLB cable set:



OMAS weight-weenie parts:



DD

Drillium Dude 

More....

OMAS full kit:



Latex tubes:



CLB Professional brakeset:



Campy brakes:



Campy pedals - check out the price on the ti-axle Super Record set:



Tubulars:



Derailleurs:



Crankset/BB details:



Specialty items:



Shoes:



DD

romperrr 

Cool share. Thanks!

D1andonlyDman

I had that catalogue back in the day. Dayum, I should have bought out the store of the Ideale 90 Saddles with Aluminum rails @$35, because nowadays, they sell for $500 or so in pristine condition

qcpmsame 

I remember thumbing through that catalog, I wish I could still get those prices today......

The lady/friend that gave the catalog to me, Mrs. Mary Fortney, passed away a month ago, sadly. She and her husband, Jim, were responsible for Monica and my becoming serious cyclist. Mary always had a kind word for anyone that was riding with us in the Pensacola Freewheelers Cycling Club, she was our "Mom", as well as a very talented rider. I really miss you, Mrs, Mary, R.I.P.

Bill

Drillium Dude 

IKR? I remember a recent thread showing a special rail clamp system that could be adapted to Campy and I think Zeus posts for use with those 90 aluminum versions. Beautiful saddles - and it appears Bikecology plumped for the Rebour versions to boot.

DD

1989Pre 

Nice, nice finish on that Mercian.

RobbieTunes

Alan Goldsmith, one of the folks behind Bikecology.
Assisted/consulted to Centurion on the Cinelli-made Equipe,
had a hand in later Ironman bikes.
His wife was a principal, I think, at Park Pre.
He's now consulting to Specialized.
And he's in his 80's, still practicing law in CA.

steelbikeguy

oh yeah... I've got a few old catalogs too.

Lots of fun to browse through and remember what it was like when all of this stuff was new and shiny to us.. and very irresistible!!

Of course, it's also the memories of when stuff was much cheaper that makes us reluctant to pay modern prices. "I remember when a silk tire cost $30... and you expect me to pay $50 for a regular tire??" I try to not do this too much.

For anyone who has the bug to browse other old catalogs, Mark Bulgier is hosting quite a few on his web site:
bulgier.net - /pics/bike/Catalogs/

There are a few there that I scanned and sent to Mark many years ago.


Steve in Peoria

nlerner

Good stuff! Another great site for old catalogs and whatnot is Robert Broderick's velo-pages.

cyclotoine

I like super record pedals: "look like record but spindles are titanium and the other components are superior"? haha, really were the cages and bodies really any different?

Darth Lefty 

70's inflation must have been terrifying. Dad's full-Campy Paramount was $600 in mid-76, no way it could be done at those prices.

SJX426 

Jeff, Thanks for sharing! I liked the explanation of the Record vs NR vs SR.

St33lWh33ls

LOL, Latex tubes, "Recommended primarily for those interested in experimenting with exotic items."

Salamandrine 

The cages and bodies were exactly the same. Only difference was that the Super Records had titanium spindles. It was very exotic and $$ material at the time. IIRC they were CP titanium. I remember a couple guys snapping them.

big chainring 

In 1975 I had just started bike racing and bought a used Paramount track bike for $200, It was a bit large for me. A few months later The local Schwinn store had ordered a smaller Paramount track bike for someone and they back out of the deal. The guys at the store offered it to me for $325! Brand new, still in the box, Cinelli buffalo saddle, metallic red, oh man it was beautiful. I didn't have the money. Think about that bike till this day.

RobbieTunes

That covers a lot of territory these days.

ThermionicScott 

Great stuff, DD! I wish jerseys today were more like those -- colorful, but simple.

Fahrenheit531 

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!!

Doohickie

I bought my first "big boy" bike there in 1984 (a Nishiki Olympic 12).

repechage

Thanks DD, interesting refresher.
In regard to 70's inflation...
In 1975 Bikeology advertised Colnago Super frame sets with Campagnolo headset for $225.
1979, bare frame set for $325.
A pretty rapid clip.
Not hyper by any means but for those who recall or read recent history, Nixon brought wage and price controls to the economy when inflation was still in single digits, save for the 10% extra import tariff that hit the bike industry hard in one fell stroke of the executive order pen not long after entering office in his first term. Designed to keep imports out, but even the domestic bike industry relied on imported parts to a large extent.

Repack Rider

Here's a link to a .pdf of the 1982 Ritchey/MountainBikes catalog.

MKahrl

Regardless of the year bought, anyone purchasing a Paramount was making a serious investment and probably paying a bit of a premium over a similar but less available import.

$600 is $2511 in 2016 dollars. Reasonable considering it would be tough to duplicate at that price today. Back then there were more experienced braziers, component production runs (such as nuovo record) could go for 10 years at a time without retooling, there were less environmental concerns with chrome plating.

Darth Lefty 

Yes, but what I meant was, the inflation just from 76 to 79 was huge. I turned 18 in 1995, so if I do the math, inflation has averaged 2.24% over my adult life. I can't imagine what it was like in the 70's at over 10% some years. The price my dad payed to get his Paramount in 76 with full Campy, even though Nuovo and not Super, would have been completely impossible at the component prices shown here just a few years later.

noglider 

As a kid in high school -- I graduated in 1978 --, this was among my favorite reading. I built several bikes in my head with that catalog.

I liked the quirky writing. On a non-Campagnolo item, they would say, "Why pay so much more for Campy?" and on Campagnolo items, they wrote, "Why settle for anything less?" They covered all ground possible.