As an American shopping for your first road bicycle, you saw three types of wheelsets: 26 x 1-1/4" clinchers, 27 x 1-1/4" clinchers, and 700C tubulars.
Your choice of saddles was tensioned leather Brooks, tensioned leather Ideale, tensioned leather Wrights, or a wide mattress thing.
You did not leave the house for a long ride without spare spokes taped to your Silca pump and spare brake and gear cables in your saddle or handlebar bag.
You and at least half of your friends had your water bottles on the handlebars instead of the frame tubes.
A triple chainring was pretty special, and a 6-speed freewheel was downright rare.
The 90-speed bike in Charlie Harding's shop just south of UCLA was quite a spectacle, as were the curly-stay Hetchins frames.
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069