The bike boom of the early 70's

Tom Nakashima wrote:

to get around campus. San Jose State was 7-long blocks long, and was just
as wide. I can recall there were bicycles everywhere, seemed like everyone
rode a road bike back then. I remember rolls and rolls of bicycles, stock
piled horizontally in bike racks all over the campus. Talk about parking,
can you imagine not being able to find a bicycle parking space?
When the Vietnam War was nearing the end 1974-1975, many college students
returned to the normal life and result, the crash of the bicycle boom.
I could be wrong about the theory, but it was just a thought.

When I entered college in 1974, bicycles were still the way to get
around the campus. It was a very large campus and there was really no
other way to get between classes in only 15 minutes if you had back to
back classes. There were "only" 27,000 students on campus when I was in
school, and probably more than 27,000 bicycles since the staff and
professors rode them as well. Now the same school is about 50,000
people, the campus is now even more spread out, yet bicycles have fallen
from favor, and the campus bus system now is used more. It seems
inconvenient to me to use a bus to go only a mile or so, but maybe
they've vastly improved the bus system.

Thankfully flat bar bicycles were not very popular, most everyone rode a
"10 speed" though there were some three speeds as well. It'd have been a
much less enjoyable campus with flat bar bicycles, though probably less
accidents would have occurred.

In article
,
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:28:24 -0700, sergio
wrote:


I used to read about these bikes, but unless you lived in or around NYC,

Wait a minute.
I am feeling feel rather nostalgic after reading this much.

Can anyone come up with a photograph of my first 'ten-speed' bike? I
would very much like to see it again.
It was a Pierce Arrow, painted in gold, bought in 1969 at Jamaica
(N.Y.).

Thanks

Sergio
Pisa

Dear Sergio,

Something like this?

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j5...Arrow_Bike.jpg

Text:

http://bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-282565.html

OK. What was that Italian bicycle with the chrome plated
frame and cottered cranks from the sixties? I had one
second hand for a while.

--
Michael Press

"vey" wrote in message
...
wrote:
On Aug 22, 12:03 pm, "David L. Johnson"
wrote:

It also misses the boat, in my opinion, regarding the distinction
between lightweight/other bikes. The increase in sales of lightweight
bikes in the 70s was not due to the gas "crisis" but rather to the entry
of higher-quality cheap lightweight bikes from Japan out-competing the
venerable, massive, Schwinn Varsity. Prior to that time, the only
"lightweight" bikes available were more expensive, exotic European
racing bikes with such things as tubular tires.


--

David L. Johnson

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on
no account be allowed to do the job.
-- Douglas Adams

Granted most of us may have been looking for alternatives to the
Varsity and Continental, but Japanese bikes were not the only choices,
at least in the late '60s and early '70s. Peugeot had the UO-8 and
its siblings, and Gitane, Motobecane, and Mercier had me-too
machines. Many great Italian marques had "gaspipe" bikes: Atala,
Benotto, Frejus, too many to even find! Same for Falcon, Dawes, and
Raleigh, with pretty darn nice entry-level offerrings. Just a few
years earlier you could get a much lighter European machine for the
same price as a Varsity or Continental. These were clincher-equipped
bikes, you had to go up to the next price level (around $60-$80 more
if I recall correctly) to get into a PX-10E class or Raleigh
Competition.


I used to read about these bikes, but unless you lived in or around NYC, I
don't think there were many available (well, maybe SoCal). Most of the
LBS's around here in the hinterlands sport "since 1972" or later slogans,
but the Schwinn dealers were here and are now long gone. I looked into
shipping a bike in from NYC, but the (then regulated) LTL rates were sky
high. In the hundreds.

Lived and worked in a LBS in Salem, Oregon (hinterland indeed) in 1971 and
1972. Sold Gitanes, Peugeots, Schwinns, Raleighs, and some others I'm not
remembering. The shop (Scott's Cycles) has been around about 100 years now,
including Schwinn coming and going.
Kerry

In article ,
Michael Press wrote:

In article
,
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:28:24 -0700, sergio
wrote:


I used to read about these bikes, but unless you lived in or around NYC,

Wait a minute.
I am feeling feel rather nostalgic after reading this much.

Can anyone come up with a photograph of my first 'ten-speed' bike? I
would very much like to see it again.
It was a Pierce Arrow, painted in gold, bought in 1969 at Jamaica
(N.Y.).

Thanks

Sergio
Pisa

Dear Sergio,

Something like this?

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j5...Arrow_Bike.jpg

Text:

http://bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-282565.html

OK. What was that Italian bicycle with the chrome plated
frame and cottered cranks from the sixties? I had one
second hand for a while.

All of them?

Are you describing a Chiorda?

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

SMS wrote:

Thankfully flat bar bicycles were not very popular, most everyone rode a
"10 speed" though there were some three speeds as well. It'd have been a
much less enjoyable campus with flat bar bicycles, though probably less
accidents would have occurred.

You refer to the concurrent popularity of 10-speeds and low-cut
women's wear?

Chalo

On 13 Set, 23:57, wrote:
Something like this?

Sort of, though not quite.

Somebody mentioned Chiorda bikes?
They were all around here, too, in the late sixties. A lot of them
were just crap.

Sergio
Pisa

In article
,
Ryan Cousineau wrote:

In article ,
Michael Press wrote:

In article
,
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:28:24 -0700, sergio
wrote:


I used to read about these bikes, but unless you lived in or around NYC,

Wait a minute.
I am feeling feel rather nostalgic after reading this much.

Can anyone come up with a photograph of my first 'ten-speed' bike? I
would very much like to see it again.
It was a Pierce Arrow, painted in gold, bought in 1969 at Jamaica
(N.Y.).

Thanks

Sergio
Pisa

Dear Sergio,

Something like this?

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j5...Arrow_Bike.jpg

Text:

http://bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-282565.html

OK. What was that Italian bicycle with the chrome plated
frame and cottered cranks from the sixties? I had one
second hand for a while.

All of them?

Are you describing a Chiorda?

I am asking others because I do not remember the name.

--
Michael Press

"Michael Press" wrote in message
...
In article
,
Ryan Cousineau wrote:

In article
,
Michael Press wrote:

In article
,
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:28:24 -0700, sergio
wrote:


I used to read about these bikes, but unless you lived in or
around NYC,

Wait a minute.
I am feeling feel rather nostalgic after reading this much.

Can anyone come up with a photograph of my first 'ten-speed'
bike? I
would very much like to see it again.
It was a Pierce Arrow, painted in gold, bought in 1969 at Jamaica
(N.Y.).

Thanks

Sergio
Pisa

Dear Sergio,

Something like this?


http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j5...Arrow_Bike.jpg

Text:

http://bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-282565.html

OK. What was that Italian bicycle with the chrome plated
frame and cottered cranks from the sixties? I had one
second hand for a while.

All of them?

Are you describing a Chiorda?

I am asking others because I do not remember the name.

--
Michael Press

Frejus and Legnano both had chrome plated frames. I think that Atala may
have sold one too.

Chas.