When I was a kid in the mid 60s, the group of friends I had weren't interested in anything but speed. We saw pictures of real racing bikes and copied what we saw as best we could with old unwanted English 3 speeds. By then, everybody wanted 10 speed bikes so the old 3 speeds were cheap enough for a paper boy budget. Fenders, racks, chainguards and kickstands came off. The handlebars got flipped around and as soon as you could afford it, you would go down to Western Auto and buy a cheap molded plastic "racing seat". I think we were more motivated by Norton Commandos than Tour de France riders, but we still made it our mission in life to go everywhere as fast as possible. Only lately did I realize that we were carrying on the fine tradition of earlier Scorchers.