Originally Posted by
lhbernhardt
The 70's bike boom was mostly due to the Arab Oil embargo, high demand and low supply, and the price inelasticity of gasoline. When the gas prices went down and supplies were resumed, the bike boom faded for most people.
Luis
Nah. I bought my first "real" bike in college in 1970, when everybody (at least in California) was riding "10 speeds." The Arab oil embargo was later, 1973 or '74. By then I was working for Hot Rod magazine and gas at the station near our office on Sunset Blvd went from about 25 cents a gallon to 49.9 in about a month. Made it pretty hard to write enthusiastically about cars that got 6 or 7mpg.
As I recall, the boom was inspired (again, at least in California) by growing awareness of environmental issues. We even picketed the police department because they bought Crown Vics or something instead on Pintos...