General Cycling Discussion - Bike Catalogues

There was a time when I used to collect bike catalogues. Everytime, I went to visit a shop at the beginning of the new model year, I would come away with a stack of catalogues. Some of them were pretty glitzy but offerred no real information. Others were real works of technical literature and surpassed most of the cycling books you could buy in bookstores. My favourite catalogues were from Bridgestone which were incredibly informative. More than half the catalogue itself was about cycling in general. Each one seems to painstackingly detail all aspects of bicycles from how they're made, the various technological philosophies, riding techniques and etiquettes, etc... everything under the sun. And this was all in the 50 pages before you got to their bike models and specs. It's a shame no one produces sales literature of such high quality anymore. And yes, I know we've now got this new-fangled thingie here called the Internet and the World Wide Web but even most websites are lacking. What are your favourite catalogues?

So where can you get these Bridgestone catalogues?

So where can you get these Bridgestone catalogues?

I wish I still had my old ones... sadly they were destroyed in a flood. Some folks have archived theirs. Check out this webpage (http://unr.edu/homepage/addison/bridgestoneandrivendell.html) and in particular the scanned copy of the 1994 Catalogue (http://www.scsr.nevada.edu/~wilhite/bstone1994cat.pdf) (warning: large PDF)

Specialized's new catalogue SUCKS... I basically have to apologize to customers when I hand it to them since its incredibly useless. To anyone who hasn't seen it, what they do is they highlight one model from each line in the body of the catalogue in a completely random order, and then in the back, also completely randomly, they break down the models of each line with microscopic pictures and print. Its beyond useless.

I have the 50th anniversary edition of the DeRosa catalog. It's sweet- it has great pictures of everyone in the family, goes through the history of DeRosa, and describes in great detail all their current bikes out, including the Cinquanta. It's professionally done, all glossy and slick, and I'm lovin' it! :D

Koffee

I have the 50th anniversary edition of the DeRosa catalog. It's sweet- it has great pictures of everyone in the family, goes through the history of DeRosa, and describes in great detail all their current bikes out, including the Cinquanta. It's professionally done, all glossy and slick, and I'm lovin' it! :D

Hmmm... sounds cool. I'll have to go out and start collecting catalogues again. I just really liked the Bridgestone ones because they didn't just concentrate on themselves but tried to be educational about cycling as a whole.

Specialized's new catalogue SUCKS... I basically have to apologize to customers when I hand it to them since its incredibly useless. To anyone who hasn't seen it, what they do is they highlight one model from each line in the body of the catalogue in a completely random order, and then in the back, also completely randomly, they break down the models of each line with microscopic pictures and print. Its beyond useless.

DUDE? do you really need to see a pic of every model? the catalog shows the best version of each bike, then if you want to know about the lesser models you read the specs in the back.
what are you talking about randomly placed models, they go very orderly from S-works bikes to road bikes to commute bikes to comfort bikes to mountain bikes to kids biks and bmx bikes and so on..... the lesser models in the back follow the same order. Can you think of a better way to place them?

If your customers really need to see a full sized picture of a lesser model its called www.specialized.com

in case you can't tell, im a big fan of specialized catalogs, bikes, accessories, teams, everything!

Hey those old great Bridgestone catalogs were written by Grant Peterson now of Rivendell Bicycle Works (http://rivendellbicycles.com) you can actually buy the 1994 catalog from them here (http://rivendellbicycles.com/webalog/books/23009.html) The Rivendell catalogs are in the same vein as the old B'Stone one's: lots of informative articles, long detailed explanations on why certain components are used and sold etc. There is even an annual issue written entirely in verse! This is the only cycling catalog that I get (and I seem to get plenty) that I actually read through cover to cover.

Hey those old great Bridgestone catalogs were written by Grant Peterson now of Rivendell Bicycle Works (http://rivendellbicycles.com) you can actually buy the 1994 catalog from them here (http://rivendellbicycles.com/webalog/books/23009.html) The Rivendell catalogs are in the same vein as the old B'Stone one's: lots of informative articles, long detailed explanations on why certain components are used and sold etc. There is even an annual issue written entirely in verse! This is the only cycling catalog that I get (and I seem to get plenty) that I actually read through cover to cover.

Yep. I knew about Grant and the Rivendell catalogues. I don't own a Rivendell or Bridgestone but I still think their catalogs are the best piece of marketting literature I've ever seen and I loved reading them. They really are more like magazines than catalogues... which is interesting given that these days, many cycling magazines are more the other way around.

DUDE? do you really need to see a pic of every model? the catalog shows the best version of each bike, then if you want to know about the lesser models you read the specs in the back.
what are you talking about randomly placed models, they go very orderly from S-works bikes to road bikes to commute bikes to comfort bikes to mountain bikes to kids biks and bmx bikes and so on..... the lesser models in the back follow the same order. Can you think of a better way to place them?

If your customers really need to see a full sized picture of a lesser model its called www.specialized.com

in case you can't tell, im a big fan of specialized catalogs, bikes, accessories, teams, everything!

I dont think a lot of people will buy the top end models of each lineup, which are the only ones in the brochure... and the ones that do buy the high end... well more likely than not they already saw the bikes online having researched them countless times. So those people dont need the brochure... lol.

But for the general public who buy bikes below $3-5k... i think they want to see it in pretty pictures.

Im a Specialized fanboy as well... i have like 4 of those catalogs. :D

Giants brochure on the other hand has all of the models IIRC.

Felts isnt even a brochure... it looks more like a flyer. ;)

Whoops, I forgot I also have a Pegoretti catalog for 2004. Those bikes are beautiful, and he did a lot of the bike shots against old ruins and old castles and such. I really like that one- it's on my coffee table!

Koffee