That "joy" should be in quotation marks, believe me. Not that the European entry-level bikes were all that bad, once you got used to their quirks. Like the fact that the cable-securing nut in the straddle wire carrier of a Balilla center-pull brake was made of pot metal---you just had to learn that the difference between too loose and a snapped bolt was less than a quarter-turn of the wrench.

At least those bikes came partially assembled. And what joy when they started coming in with the handlebars taped! The Treks that our shop started carrying in 1979, on the other hand, were shipped with the frame and fork in one box and the headset and everything else in a second box.

Trek kept that up until 1983 or so, at which point they began shipping them mostly assembled. Ironically, we picked up Cannondale bikes that year. Yep---frame and fork in one box, components in the other.