jacksbike

My Dad was in the bike business from 1952 until 1979. There were 2 Bike Booms: 1971-72 and 1978-9. The first one was the bike craze in which everyone had to have a 10 speed. The second one was when the price of gas skyrocketed and people bought bikes to use to commute (That did not last long). Interesting question and points about if there was a bike boom in the rest of the world. Never thought about it. We sold Schwinn, Raleigh, Fuji, Vista, Dawes and a smattering of other stuff. The Raleighs and Fujis were starting to eat Schwinn's lunch because you could buy a 28 pound bike for the same price as a 40+ pound Schwinn Varsity. This forced Schwinn to have lightweight bikes manufactured for them by Panasonic/National . The quality was there but they were really missing the boat whne all the lightweight European models begain invading the states (i.e. - Motobecane, Atala, Gitane, Fuji, Takara, Sekine, etc.) From a business point of view, the booms helped my Dad make a real living for the first time in decades. We sold everything that we could get our hands on. The inventory turnover was absolutely incredible. Seems these days that the bike business is just crawling along and it is very difficult for an independent dealer to make a decent living; just like in the 60's.