Classtime 

In the '70s, I purchased a $70 Simplex Prestige 10 speed of Euro Brand X. And then upgraded to a UO-8. Two different shops and neither shop offered to swap stems or bars or seat posts to fine tune the fit. I suppose if I had the dough to buy a frameset and also have the shop build me a bike, then the stem, bars, cranks, toe clips, etc would be chosen based on my physique and riding style. But what if I only had the money for a Raleigh Competition, PX-10, Gitane TDF, or the like? Would the shop offer component swaps to fine tune the fit? I'm thinking that if I went to buy a Raleigh Competition, I'd stand over each of the 3 sizes, and select the one that provided some clearance but not too much clearance and be done. I'm also thinking that the shop wouldn't suggest that I get a different brand or model with a longer or shorter top tube in relation to the seat tube that would "fit" me better. Wouldn't my Competition come home with me equipped with Raleigh's chosen stem length, bar width, crank length, etc. for that size bike?

thinktubes 

BITD, shops sold lots of 25" frames, which we now see with the seatposts slammed...

The right bike is the one for sale.

Salamandrine 

Usually you'd have tried a couple sizes in a couple lines, and picked what fit you best off the rack. Need a longer top tube? Get the Peugeot instead of the other one. The goal was usually to sell a bike that fit reasonably well. All the usual rules of thumb would have been used. Straddle test first, elbow from the seat to the handlebars, sighting the hub while seated, KOPS. Most people were kind of new to cycling, and didn't really have set preferences. If the rider started riding every day, joined the bike club, started racing, etc, then they could decide for themselves if they wanted a 10cm stem or an 11cm stem.

In a way more consideration was given to fitting. Seatposts and stems were short with limited adjustability. You had to get the frame size/geometry pretty close.

Miele Man

I think that the reason a lot of shops didn't want to change a stem or especially change a handlebar back then was because of the intensive labour involved in doing it, Changing a handlebar involved removing the bar tape and the brake levers and then putting them onto the new handlebar.

Cheers

Phil_gretz

Well, when we were younger, we eagerly rode bikes that did not fit. So there's that...

Now, having finely tuned our fit and knowing all to well the limitations and capacities of our bodies, we can sense a few millimeters of "not quite right". Some of that is expertise, some is acquired wisdom, and the rest is voodoo.

Salamandrine 

That sort of thing was done -- on high end bikes. On the middle range bikes very very rarely, and they would have been charged. It was simpler and more efficient to steer a customer towards a bike that had a longer or short top tube, or came with a shorter stem already. That's the main reason shops usually carried about 3 lines. Something was likely to be a good fit off the shelf. Practically speaking for an occasional recreational rider, that's good enough.

On the high end -- club riders and racers -- people were just as particular as they are now, possibly more so. The idea that precise fitting is some new concept is false.

Trakhak

The old one-inch-of-clearance fitting technique worked quite well with horizontal top tubes. Most people ended up with the saddle level with or slightly above the handlebar. It wasn't until the 2000s that people began going to extremes with (edgy but aesthetically repellent) ultra-high saddles and ultra-low bars. (Tip for those people: cylindrical Yakima bike rack crossbars measure 27.2 mm in diameter. Have fun.)

One shop I worked in sold Torpados for a year or two. The distributor was new to bikes and, unlike the more experienced distributors, brought in the full size range of 49 cm to 63 cm, with 1-cm increments through most of the range.

Customers who test rode the three sizes that I recommended trying (i.e., the frame size that I believed was correct as well as the bikes 1 cm bigger and 1 cm smaller) almost always ended up buying a Torpado.

Unfortunately, the distributor stopped bringing the bikes in pretty quickly, I assume because most dealers didn't understand how to use the near-custom size range to facilitate sales.

Classtime 

So, is it safe to say that almost every 70's showroom bicycle was sold without exchanging bars or stem? I'm thinking of going back to what I assume are the factory spec bars and stem on my '78 Competition G.S. because I never tire of hearing, "Wow...I used to have one just like that." A bike's stem length, bar width, as well as their make and model are not a big deal, but they are significant and for the pageantry of EroicaCA I can ride with a shorter reach for the maximum enjoyment of all.

Ex Pres 

Bike Boom = you were going to buy anyway, and quickly. Why jam up the sales cycle? The next buyer was standing behind you.

gugie 

Based on all of the stock, vintage bikes we find, you're pretty much correct. But I do know of this 15 year old that had Straightblock do some customizing at Big Wheel Bike Shop in Fresno, California.

uncle uncle

I worked in a bicycle shop in the mid-1980's, and we still, pretty much, always sold bicycles with the stems, seatposts, handlebars, saddles, etc. as they came from the factory. The shop sold mostly entry level bicycles, occasionally a mid-level bicycle, and never-if-ever higher level bicycles shown in our catalogs. We relied on the "you shouldn't be able to see the front hub" method of sizing bicycles. So, wrong era, good info (as related to the thread starter's original questions), and context. (Really, I'm checking into the thread because I'm interested in the questions Classtime posed....)

repechage

The last shop I worked for...circa 1985... did a good business in fitting folk for profit.
Cleat adjustment, position, bike got mounted on a trainer. Took a while.
One item that made the process go faster was a 3ttt adjustable stem. One was modified to accept Cinelli bars.
Today that is much easier, save for bar width and bend, change that and it takes much longer even with a mod open access stem.

What I observed was how many clients arrived and sat on the bike with elbows locked. Boy, that must hurt after a while.
Many also had the saddle way too far forward.
After that was saddle too high. Their pelvis rocked side to side. Saddle sores? "now that you mention it..."
Some riders were so out of whack that they needed two sessions to move them to a better fit on the bike.

Lots of knee pain cured.
It is very hard for someone to assess how comfortable they look on the bike themselves.

repechage

Those were "Bro" upgrade prices back then even.
Typical of the shop I worked for was free labor to install upgraded parts, but the "take off" parts went into the parts bin and the new parts were sold at retail.
Of course, they may have been happy to sell a BIG frame.

gugie 

I still remember the shop selling me "one size up" to "grow into". My mother thought that was a good idea, having had to buy clothes and shoes for a growing teenager, even though I saved every penny for it. Super Courses came in 2" increments, the right size for me was (and still is) in between - 24"/60cm CTC.