thinktubes 

1985 Ciocc Designer '84.

I was a Junior in college and the Bears won the Super Bowl. My room mates and I got completely crazy and broke all our furniture. We spent the rest of the year sitting on lawn chairs and beanbags. Goodtimes!

Velocivixen

This is either a 1974 or a 1975 Motobecane Grand Jubile (Reynolds 531), that I have modified but tried to keep "era compatible" even though most components are new. I was about 10 years old at that time and I did know how to ride a bike. A neighbor boy let me learn on his bike when I was 6. I didn't get my own bike until I was about 11 or 12, which was a used Schwinn, I believe with a banana seat and "ape hanger" handlebars. Anyway, home life was not good, and a bicycle was an escape from having to be inside the house. It represented freedom, adventure, and took my mind off things......

This is my first and only Motobecane bike:

leicanthrope

1975 Fuji Professional

Not a lot of memories from that year, as I was still pretty confused and distracted by that whole just having been born thing. (I'm only about six months older than the bike.)

Chrome Molly

83 Trek 630.

Was probably messing around town with The Golden Boy...

Bledfor Days

A 1976 CCM Targa Ten. I bought a Targa with the money from my grocery store job in in 1974. It was stolen from school shortly thereafter. I found this Targa Ten last year and reminded me how upset I was after losing my first ten speed. It was the low end of the CCM ten speed line. A neat feature of this bike is that it has the Shimano Positron I derailleur with the push-pull cable.

Zinger

Crappy old telephone pic of my '86 Trek. Better one coming after winter wrenching complete.

Greg Lemond wins Tour de France and loses Coors Classic to Red Zinger team mate Bernard Hinault.....Whines a lot about having to compete with a team mate in the Coors Classic whereas he got a free ride from Hinault the year before.


Also Team 7-11 rides their first TDF and Davis Phinney wins stage 3. Interview with Phinney at 44:10

And I moved from Dallas to San Diego having to sell my first '83 Trek 970 for funds to ship my machinist tools.

John E

1981 Bianchi

I just found out the color of mine is called "anthracyte," like the coal. If I recall correctly, Fred, the owner (then and now) of LeucadiaBikes.com described the color as "charcoal" when my neighbor bought it new at a discount after the 1982 models had already come out. (I guess everyone, including my neighbor, wanted celeste. which -- of course -- appears in the attached catalog cover picture from that year.)

1981 was also the year I left my native Los Angeles -- where I had lived except for high school in Huntington Beach / "Surf City" -- for north coastal San Diego County. Overall, it has proven to be a good move for my wife and me, and our boys seem to be happy to have grown up here, but it did not take me long after moving to discover (Russian thistle plant) goathead thorns, which caused me to give up tubular tires.

RobbieTunes

1985 Cinelli Equipe Centurion (Cinelli Team Centurion)

The folks at Western States Imports (Centurion) had long been Italian bike fans. One look at the 1983 Turbo, or the Pro Tours and Semi Pro's of the era, and you could see the sincerest form of flattery: chrome fork crowns, chromed frames under the paint, chromed seat stay caps, dropouts, fork legs, etc. In 1983, WSI sent Alan Goldsmith to Italy, to help coordinate and negotiate an Italian-made Centurion, or rather, a Cinelli-made Centurion. The longest negotiations regarded the size and placement of something felt by many to be THE brand in cycling at the time: the Cinelli name/logo. It was decided to have the logo be no more than 1" tall, in Cinelli's font, with the flying C leading off the lower case lettering. This was to be on the L chain stay, with "cinelli equipe" to be linear, and on the downtube, above the shifters, with cinelli/equipe stacked.

Cino Cinelli provided introductions to Andreas Cinelli, who was managing the bicyle production for Cinelli, by then owned by the Columbo family (tubing). Andreas provided introductions to the Chirico factory, already making Cinelli frames under contract, on the outskirts of Bussero, Italy (near Milan). This by no means left the bike outside the Cinelli realm, as one of the Chirico sons "apprenticed" under Cinelli's master frame builder for 12 years, leaving in 1984 (which happened to be the same year Chirico patented a fork-making process for both internally and externally lugged steel forks).

The color was to be the same as the original Super Corsa, and extensive use of non-Campagnolo, but Italian sourced parts was ordered, with Ofmega, Miche, Fiamme, and Gipiemme getting spec'd along with Nuovo Record shifters/FD/RD and Cinelli steering and saddle. The bike was priced to compete in the US market at $1200 vs. the other, more expensive Italians. The project was for one year, with one shipping container of bikes, and if failed spectacularly. That same model year saw a Japanese "copy" by Centurion, the Prestige, with Tange Prestige tubing, and that new Dura Ace 2x6 indexed stuff. Also that year, the Ironman made entrance into the market, and the very good Elite RS was in it's second to last year. Centurion seemed to be really hitting it's stride.

Enough background on the bike. I was here, years ago, mining for Ironman bikes, and BF member A.Winthrop kept egging me on to buy one of these Equipes off of eBay in California. I bid, and I won, and I loved it, but it was too small, a 52cm, big for it's size, and ending up in the hands of my brother-in-law after his Marin was stolen. I hung in there with Ironman bikes, and then, out of the blue, a 56cm Equipe pops up on the threads, with the OP asking about value. I gave him a range, and then inquired. BF members JunkYardBike and A.Winthrop narrowed down the price range, I sent an offer, and was told "there is another person interested." Not knowing if that was true, and not wanting to bid against myself, I let my offer stand, figuring I'd not hear another word. Two weeks later, it was accepted, and we exchanged correspondence, money for the bike, and it arrived. I promptly "built it" the best I could, with 8-sp Chorus, earning a spot on Branford Bikes' featured bike page. About that time, I received a message from the actual "other person interested," telling me that the extra $25 I'd offered was more than he could go. As you can see, I removed the horrible lavender and black Centurion DT decals and headbadge, preferring Cinelli's decals, and a head badge decal of my own design.

After picking up some parts, and other bikes, I built it into what you see below. It fell victim to my "6-months and no riding, it sells" rule, but I was careful about putting it out there. One response, however, was right what I was looking for...."I raced one of these in the Junior Nationals in 1986, and I've wanted another one for years." I won't tell you what former pro bought it, but he now lives in Missouri, and l likes the bike. I like the whole situation.

otg 

1971 Schwinn Super Sport. Bought it paper route money when I was 15. I actually took it for a spin yesterday, but don't use it much anymore since it's much too big for me. I've shrunk about an inch and a half and they used to sell you a big bike back in the day.

The Golden Boy 

Wow...

1985 Trek 720.




Sitting on a railroad bridge, smoking a whole lot of cigarettes while shooting the breeze with Chrome Molly. Who didn't smoke. But he listened to me rant.

That railroad bridge is now part of a "rails to trails" bike path that runs through town now. That's the same bridge that one of the neighbor kids and I would steal his Dad's Playboys and look at 'em there.

RobE30

81 Trek 710. That was the year my mom brought home a brand new Honda Accord (5spd) and a new baby from the hospital, me.

auchencrow

Great idea for a thread, @rootboy.

My 68 Ganna.




- The same year that I bought my first electric guitar.

RobE30

That guitar is associated with the Devil's music! Send it to me now and I will atone it of all evil.

KennyH

As part of research I was doing while writing a biography of my uncle Jimmy (as a gift for my son Jimmy) I came across news clippings of a 1000 mile / 1600 km trip my uncle took as a 16 year old boy. The highway from Lake Louise in Banff National Park to the town of Jasper was opened in 1940 (a still popular cycle trip) and my uncle just had to ride it. Sadly my uncle died in the skys over Germany in 1944. During an interview with my uncle's best friend, who at 82 still holds his pilots licence and flies regularly, he described the bike as a double bar CCM. After a short summer search I was lucky to find a nice example, a 1940 which although is newer than the one he rode, is of the year of his most famous ride. I have working hard on learning about how a bike works (I'm not a bike guy) and have begun the clean and rebuild. If interested, you can see my progress at Vintage CCM | forum | 1940 CCM "Motorbike" Rebuild The paint is bad, but there is really no rust anywhere (the seat post moved freely). I'll be gathering what missing parts I can, and perhaps fabricating those bits I cannot source. Initial intention is a deep blue (saphire-ish) paint job, but that is months away. Thanks to all the contributors from whose posts I have been silently learning so much,
Kenny

aixaix 

1956 Frejus. I was born that year. Although I was there the entire time I don't remember a thing.

I rode it last week for the first time in a couple of months. Took it down & up the West Side path at night; admired the Statue of Liberty and the GW Bridge and almost ran over a rat.
The bike is simply perfect. I feel faster and more comfortable on it than on any other bike I own. Every time I ride it I feel there is something magic going on.
This seems to be a Frejus track thing, as I've heard other folks say the same about theirs.

sunnyone

"... they used to sell you a big bike back in the day."

That's so true. Why is that?
[/QUOTE]

noglider 

Are you sure your legs shrank? Normally, our shrinkage is in our backs.

dyander

My 1972 Condor Italia was built and purchased by its previous owner while I was still performing Evel Kneivel jumps on my hand me down 20" Western Flyer.

I acquired it in 1980 when I traded up to a more aggressive 531 frame than the Trek Touring frame I had at the time in an effort to jump start my short lived racing career. Apparently I had a C&V temperament even then.

rootboy 

May not be too big in height, but in reach.

noglider 

Yes, good point. So as we age and complain about bending over, maybe some of it is because of our backs' shortening? I suspect most of it is because of loss of flexibility.

repechage

I can relate to that directly.

Departing a house full of tension is very rewarding.

embankmentlb

It was 1988 and I was working on my degree in architecture and art. The local shop in Gainesville Ga asked me to come up with a color scheme and logo for the team jersey. I did and for payment I received one of the 12 custom painted Guerciotti frames as payment. Neon orange and green. One of the major department store chains did a add campaign with one of our colorful riders shown on their tv screens.
It was an exciting time.

Wildwood 

1973 Schwinn Super Sport - college graduation


1981 Austro Daimler - 1st wife leaves

cobrabyte

What a cool idea for a thread, Rootboy. 1986 Specialized Rockhopper. I started kindergarten that year.

nlerner

Or you're just an old fart. Or both.