Does anyone have a surviving example of the dedicated Criterium bike of the 70’s?
They were a specialized machine/fad built to spec by American frame makers for the weekly high speed closed course racing of the era.

“Back when” road races were few and far between and Criterium racing filled the calendar. Typically for us a city would close a local park for the day and all of the classes would have at it.

Short courses, limited time/laps on a usually well paved and graded surface made for high speeds and tight quarters. Confident bike handling, a certain amount of aggression and a turn of speed were a rider’s skill requirements for being competitive. Solo breakaway wins were rare and the inevitable decision came in a sprint from whatever group survived.

To no one’s surprise the gifted sprinters with a track background ruled the podium steps. Being used to the virtues of the stiff, light maneuverable track bikes they were accustomed to on the velodrome and unimpressed with the road racing machines of the era which were designed primarily for long stages on rough European/UK roads with high speed mountain descents some took advantage of local frame building talent to produce something else.

The result was the American-made Criterium framesets that were in some aspects a track bike with brakes and a derailleur hanger.
Light, stiff, quick and “the trick set-up” for the era they were the dedicated tool for the job for some very fast riders. Twitchy, nervous, rough riding and fragile they were less suitable for long training rides, bad surfaces, big descents or general road racing and many never survived the inevitable attrition of race crashes.

Got any pics?

-Bandera