Small Snapshot of 1983
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Small Snapshot of 1983
I worked at Action Cyclery from 82 to 89. I managed the store starting in 1984. This is a picture of me in 83 right after going to Schwinn SErvice school. Notice how shiny the spokes are on the Voyageur. After learning to build a wheel at Service school they sent me home with some 12 1/8 inch Chrome spokes and I built them right when I got home. That was the first of hundreds of wheels that I've built. At the time blingy BMX bikes that were all Chrome were in style and I wanted to do the same to my voyaguer..



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Thats great stuff. Where was the shop? I worked at a store in Oak Park, IL in '83/84. We sold Miyata, Ross, Panasonic. We got in all the Ross mountain bikes and they just sat on the floor. 10-12 speeds were still the rage. And BMX. We sold Redline. I just remember all the junk bikes we'd get in for repair. And Saturday mornings doing flat repairs. 27" tires were so loose on the rims back then. No tools required. Yank the tire off, put in a new tube, inflate. $1.50 for the tube, $6 labor, $7.50 total.
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Thats great stuff. Where was the shop? I worked at a store in Oak Park, IL in '83/84. We sold Miyata, Ross, Panasonic. We got in all the Ross mountain bikes and they just sat on the floor. 10-12 speeds were still the rage. And BMX. We sold Redline. I just remember all the junk bikes we'd get in for repair. And Saturday mornings doing flat repairs. 27" tires were so loose on the rims back then. No tools required. Yank the tire off, put in a new tube, inflate. $1.50 for the tube, $6 labor, $7.50 total.
JJ
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Check out the inventory on the walls! All these pics are form 84 or 85. Im the goofball with the arrow on my head.On the one pic you can see me with my voyageur with the Zipper Fairing! One of the first products from Zipp Designs.
Enjoy









Enjoy










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Thought there would be some interest in the pics.. I guess not.
LOL
JJ
LOL
JJ
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The pics are great! It's fun to check out the inventory, and you sure seem to have enjoyed your work. Thanks for sharing.

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Great old pics jjhabbs did you scan these in from prints?
I would have been in grade 4/5 which is around when i got my first bike; a 10-speed.
I would have been in grade 4/5 which is around when i got my first bike; a 10-speed.
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I'd kill for the inventory in that shop now. 81 to 83 was my no-bike years...too busy with school and clubbing in Doc Martins. Cool snapshots.
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Cool pics. I worked in a shop in New Orleans in the 80s. We sold Peugeots, Treks, Miyatas.
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I graduated college in ‘82 and gave my brother back the Peugeot UO8 I had borrowed from him after riding it a lot that summer. Moved cross country that fall/winter and bought a Trek 412 from Palo Alto Bike Shop in Dec of that year. That was my only bike for at least the next four years until I started working at a bike shop and N+1 took hold.



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Great pics of the good old days! Did you think back then, that you would ever have such a great collection some day?
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I thought you would guess a set of Mr. Tuffys! It was for a Silca pump with a Campy chuck, iirc. Still have that pump though it has duct tape holding together the cracked body, and I sold off that chuck on eBay many years ago.
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JJ
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A few more shots.













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#18
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So cool to see these. Stirs some good memories of the era for me.
Here’s one of my old photos circa ‘82 on my first “real” bike - a Raleigh Super Course that I upgraded with Campy NR derailleurs and downtube shifters. This replaced my old U-08 mixte. I’m the skinny kid in yellow.
Here’s one of my old photos circa ‘82 on my first “real” bike - a Raleigh Super Course that I upgraded with Campy NR derailleurs and downtube shifters. This replaced my old U-08 mixte. I’m the skinny kid in yellow.

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It's amazing back then. I wore a cycling cap most of the time. Even on Ragbrai I didn't use a helmet in 83.
JJ
JJ
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So cool to see old pics. I wish I had more pics from back in the day, especially of some of my cars and bmx bikes. Now I have about 13k pics on my phone I will probably never look at them all
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#21
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Great pics! Here's a picture of me winter of 82/83. My guess is I'm looking at a colnago I couldn't afford.

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#22
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Great pictures jjhabbs . This brings back memories of when I worked in a Schwinn dealer. Your shop was much more dense that the shop that I worked in Really nice pictures. It is good to see that your shop was the starting point for a ride. Maps out going over the route. That's how to navigate back then. Handlebar bags with clear windows so that you can fold the map to show where you were. BMX bike on the concrete just inches from the door.
We had a bike rack out front. None of the kids with BMX bikes used it. They would either drop the bikes on the concrete or flip them over so they were perched on the handle bars on seat within just outside the sweep of the door. We had to keep telling them to move the bikes away from the front door so other people can get in and out.
Did all Schwinn dealers have that Casio cash register back then. We had the same one, I believe. Same glass case and peg board behind the counter too. That was probably common to all bike shops though.
Where did you keep that bikes that were in for repairs?
I wish I had pictures from back then.
We had a bike rack out front. None of the kids with BMX bikes used it. They would either drop the bikes on the concrete or flip them over so they were perched on the handle bars on seat within just outside the sweep of the door. We had to keep telling them to move the bikes away from the front door so other people can get in and out.
Did all Schwinn dealers have that Casio cash register back then. We had the same one, I believe. Same glass case and peg board behind the counter too. That was probably common to all bike shops though.
Where did you keep that bikes that were in for repairs?
I wish I had pictures from back then.
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Great pictures jjhabbs . This brings back memories of when I worked in a Schwinn dealer. Your shop was much more dense that the shop that I worked in Really nice pictures. It is good to see that your shop was the starting point for a ride. Maps out going over the route. That's how to navigate back then. Handlebar bags with clear windows so that you can fold the map to show where you were. BMX bike on the concrete just inches from the door.
We had a bike rack out front. None of the kids with BMX bikes used it. They would either drop the bikes on the concrete or flip them over so they were perched on the handle bars on seat within just outside the sweep of the door. We had to keep telling them to move the bikes away from the front door so other people can get in and out.
Did all Schwinn dealers have that Casio cash register back then. We had the same one, I believe. Same glass case and peg board behind the counter too. That was probably common to all bike shops though.
Where did you keep that bikes that were in for repairs?
I wish I had pictures from back then.
We had a bike rack out front. None of the kids with BMX bikes used it. They would either drop the bikes on the concrete or flip them over so they were perched on the handle bars on seat within just outside the sweep of the door. We had to keep telling them to move the bikes away from the front door so other people can get in and out.
Did all Schwinn dealers have that Casio cash register back then. We had the same one, I believe. Same glass case and peg board behind the counter too. That was probably common to all bike shops though.
Where did you keep that bikes that were in for repairs?
I wish I had pictures from back then.
Here is a pic of the very first year they were in business. I purchased the world sport that was up on the wall on the right. That was 1980.

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#24
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Great pictures jjhabbs , especially seeing the first year compared to the mid '80's.
Nice shop the first year and thereafter. The dealer that I worked for got ambitious and bought private labeled bikes from Taiwan and sold them to shops throughout Long Island. I did deliveries of those bikes. It was good to see the range of bike shops. From the neat and organized to the shops with wooden, home made display racks with bikes and repairs packed in.
We didn't have too many problem getting bikes from Schwinn in 81, 82 or so, but we were selling more Panasonics, Fujis, Windsors, Mongooses, Redlines, GT's Torkers, Ross', Lotus' and our private label 10 speed bikes that went for $99 (maybe even $89) then. It is odd that people come to the shop because it is a Schwinn shop but they were buying non-Schwinn bikes.
I wish I had pictures from those days. Good for you for getting those pictures and even more for holding on to them and sharing them with us.
Nice shop the first year and thereafter. The dealer that I worked for got ambitious and bought private labeled bikes from Taiwan and sold them to shops throughout Long Island. I did deliveries of those bikes. It was good to see the range of bike shops. From the neat and organized to the shops with wooden, home made display racks with bikes and repairs packed in.
We didn't have too many problem getting bikes from Schwinn in 81, 82 or so, but we were selling more Panasonics, Fujis, Windsors, Mongooses, Redlines, GT's Torkers, Ross', Lotus' and our private label 10 speed bikes that went for $99 (maybe even $89) then. It is odd that people come to the shop because it is a Schwinn shop but they were buying non-Schwinn bikes.
I wish I had pictures from those days. Good for you for getting those pictures and even more for holding on to them and sharing them with us.
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#25
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Takes me back. I raced and assembled bikes the years of '77 and '78, Cambridge, MA. First Lifecycle - Fuji distributor and Centurion. (I raced the Fuji Pro.) Next year - The Bicycle Exchange where a decade before I started this journey buying a UO-8.)
I've had several '83 and close frames as fix gear winter/rain/city commuters. Japanese Schwinn with relatively light tubing. (A blast. Got stolen.) Miyata 610 that despite several hard crashes went 27,000 miles through everything until I shortened the wheelbase 8". A Trek 4-something (came to me with no decals, just the headbadge). Still running great though I had to have the seatstay caps repaired. That was the heyday of workhorse horizontal dropout steel sport bikes with eyes and room for fenders. When the Japanese had so standardized bikes that crash your ride: pick up the next used frame, swap all the parts over and done.
Thanks for bumping.
Ben
I've had several '83 and close frames as fix gear winter/rain/city commuters. Japanese Schwinn with relatively light tubing. (A blast. Got stolen.) Miyata 610 that despite several hard crashes went 27,000 miles through everything until I shortened the wheelbase 8". A Trek 4-something (came to me with no decals, just the headbadge). Still running great though I had to have the seatstay caps repaired. That was the heyday of workhorse horizontal dropout steel sport bikes with eyes and room for fenders. When the Japanese had so standardized bikes that crash your ride: pick up the next used frame, swap all the parts over and done.
Thanks for bumping.
Ben
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