Ahh, the 70s! It was a pretty cool decade to be a teenager. The music, the muscle cars, (American Motors AMX, anyone? Little 2-seater coupe with a fairly good sized engine,
that went like a bat of freakin' hell. Uh, don't ask, OK?)Learning to use a slide rule (I still have mine, and I've acquired a few more since) Girls wearing wicked short skirts and boots to school*
... What more could you want? Oh, back to bikes...
-In the Boston area, the "ten speed boom" was going full swing. The two most popular names were Raleigh and Fuji. Cyclists who were more "knowledgeable" and who had more capital,
went for some of the Italian makes, which were considered very exotic at the time. Yes, there were plenty Schwinn varsity bikes as well.
-"Richard's Bicycle Book" was very popular among riders of all types. Cover price: $1.95. I still have it. Kind of funny, reading through it now.
-Bicycle theft was very common, everywhere. This is what gave rise to an entire new industry: High Tech bicycle locks. As soon as you said you were getting a ten speed,
someone would almost immediately say, "You better get a Kryptonite lock to go with it!" Or, "Better watch out! I hear those ten speeds are getting ripped off". It was true, of course. If you left a ten speed near a store, library, or the public swimming pool, and you left it unlocked, it would just be gone by the time you returned to it, even if you were only gone for a few minutes.
-Most bike shops around here in the early 70s were an add-on to another business, usually lawn care and garden shops, or hardware stores. My favorite LBS was originally part of
of a hardware store. ("Your authorized Raleigh Dealer!") Today, the hardware business is long gone, but the bike shop is going stronger than ever, and has an enormous presence on the web.
-Almost no one had a helmet. The only helmets around were the Bell Tourister, and the European leather "hair nets" Yep, the tourister offered protection, but was heavy compared to today's helmets. It also made you look as though you had a salad bowl on your head.
-Bike shorts, gloves, jerseys, all of that stuff was still a few years away for me. I did not have pair of cycling shorts until '79.
I agree that the technology is much better today. But, I still like steel frames. Some of "this new fangled stuff" just doesn't interest me.
* Note: When I was a high school freshman, there was this very old female teacher, who went around with a ruler, measuring girls' skirts. More than three inches
above the knee and the student in question got sent home, no further discussion. Well, the old battle axe retired at the and of the year, and then the sky
became the limit. Sometimes, things just go your way.