Most Common Vintage Road Bikes
11-28-21, 07:31 PM
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Most Common Vintage Road Bikes
I'm curious if anyone has an idea of what vintage road bikes are the most common. For example from my childhood I would guess the Schwinn Varsity may be the most common. It certainly seemed to be in this area, but I've no idea if that's true nationally. Were lots of them produced or just happen to be more in this area? So curious what vintage road bikes had the biggest production numbers. Thank you in advance for any responses.
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11-28-21, 07:46 PM
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Other popular bikes include
Peugeot UO-8
Fuji S10-S
Motobecane Mirage
Peugeot UO-8
Fuji S10-S
Motobecane Mirage
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11-28-21, 07:51 PM
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Raleigh Record, Raleigh Grand Prix, CCM Targa and the UO-8.
And the Supercycles with the faux lugs. Bridgestone made perhaps.
And the Supercycles with the faux lugs. Bridgestone made perhaps.
Last edited by clubman; 11-28-21 at 07:59 PM.
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11-28-21, 07:59 PM
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Nishiki Grand Sport, Motobecane Grand Touring, Jeunet 620, Fuji Gand tourer all sold about 100,000 to name a few more. As for some less likely candidates Sears Ted Williums, Huffy Aero wind, Miyata 90 also sold big mubers.
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11-28-21, 08:31 PM
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Most common or biggest production when? Or total production/sales over the life of the company (given that a bunch of companies, e.g., Raleigh, don't really exist any longer)?
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11-28-21, 08:56 PM
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Are we talking the most produced make/model or the frame that has been produced the most number of times? I would think whatever frame Giant produced and sold to other companies to put their badge on would be up there.
11-28-21, 09:07 PM
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Make/Model
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11-28-21, 09:39 PM
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About '72-73 when the bike boom was really cranking, quite a few of my friends were buying Gitane TdFs as an affordable higher performance bike.
They weren't the best as far as fit & finish, but you got a lot of "bang for your buck".
They weren't the best as far as fit & finish, but you got a lot of "bang for your buck".
11-29-21, 07:39 PM
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Most common vintage road bikes in North America = Raleigh anything, Peugeot anything and Schwinn anything. My opinion only.
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11-29-21, 07:52 PM
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Definitely Schwinn Varsity and Continental. Back during the Bike Boom, this is what sold, what people were willing to be put on a six week waiting list for. And, more importantly, these are the bikes that survived the decades, because they were such overbuilt tanks. Second choice would be Raleighs, primarily Sports, Records and Grand Prixs.
I'm not really willing to guess beyond those five, mainly because I'm looking at the distribution systems behind each marque. Any town big enough to have a real bicycle shop in the 50's-70's had a Schwinn dealer, and this was the biggest advantage of all. Raleigh probably had the second most extensive distribution system, although it was nowhere near Schwinn's. Once you start getting into French, Italian, Dutch and Belgian bikes, the distribution is getting way more spotty. Great in the big cities, drive 100 miles into the heartland and nobody has ever heard of those brands. Japanese bikes back in the 70's didn't have the distribution, although they sure put it together quickly, but they probably started a bit too late for the stuff we'd be interested in. And, other than the first half of the Seventies, road bikes didn't sell all that great of numbers.
I'm not really willing to guess beyond those five, mainly because I'm looking at the distribution systems behind each marque. Any town big enough to have a real bicycle shop in the 50's-70's had a Schwinn dealer, and this was the biggest advantage of all. Raleigh probably had the second most extensive distribution system, although it was nowhere near Schwinn's. Once you start getting into French, Italian, Dutch and Belgian bikes, the distribution is getting way more spotty. Great in the big cities, drive 100 miles into the heartland and nobody has ever heard of those brands. Japanese bikes back in the 70's didn't have the distribution, although they sure put it together quickly, but they probably started a bit too late for the stuff we'd be interested in. And, other than the first half of the Seventies, road bikes didn't sell all that great of numbers.
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“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
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11-29-21, 08:05 PM
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Besides Raleigh and Schwinn I'll add Trek to the list.
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