RiddleOfSteel

It's added, but I'm looking for links and/or companies+links.

I have found the Velo Base catalogs. ZIP file for now...not ideal but extant.

RiddleOfSteel

Sure, but I'm looking for LINKS to the catalogs, not just names of manufacturers. Got any for Huffy?

RiddleOfSteel

That's my M.O. as well, working to translate as best as possible the years--known or not. Thank you for hosting all those catalogs! I will be going through them again so I can place specific year links for people as opposed to the just-get-it-up-there general link (which of course is still very useful).

WGB

Ok.
I don't have Huffy catalogues.

Honest question though. What of the companies that weren't makers but sold bikes made by others?. Examples like Takara? Or Terry?

RiddleOfSteel

There were a number. 10 Speed Drive comes to mind immediately as I had a Guerciotti sold through them.

Germany_chris

Bruce Gordon is from the US

bulgie 

Nobody wants to hear my uneducated guesses on the dates. I insist on crowdsourcing them. I am no marque expert for any of those dozens of brands. Each one has its adherents and apostles who know way more than I do. You mentioned Atala for example. I've never owned one or had a riding buddy who owned one, never worked at a shop that sold them or even serviced more than the odd one once a month or less. Not enough exposure to know much about them.

There's some willful ignorance too. I have some catalog scans for companies I'm just not interested in. But someone took the time to scan it and send it to me, so I feel a duty to honor that effort by giving the scans a home. Just don't expect me to research it to find the year — I'm too lazy to research even the brands I am interested in, let alone the ones I'm not. So sue me!

You see the utter bare-bones 1990-style of the website (or even crude for that era). No HTML for most of the catalogs, just a plain file listing. This is never going to be a "user friendly" database. Anyone is welcome to take these files and make a much better website for them, in fact I encourage people to. I don't own the copyrights for these catalog images, I didn't even scan them myself in most cases, so I can't really put limits on how people use them. Getting these catalogs mirrored elsewhere would be a good idea because my server is old and not super redundant, there are single points of failure that could take bulgier.net "off the air". Like I could get hit by a bus. So make copies for yourself and/or start sharing them on your own server. Please do keep the little txt files explaining who did the scanning and/or who owned the physical catalog that was scanned, they deserve to get credit.

Mark B in Seattle

iab

I am in full agreement. I'm actually putting it on the OP. They are the ones who want this database, my suggestion is that without a ballpark date, the database loses a lot a value. While looking at catalogs for no reason is a legitimate activity, I do it myself, most of the time, I'm looking for specific reason. What components were offered when. What frame models were offered when. If you are interested in vintage bikes, you interested about dates. They go hand in hand.

So having a laundry list of data without focus makes it entirely random if you find what you actually want. That makes people less likely to use it. I'm happy to pay RSC the 12 euro/year because I can target my searches. The OP could do the same and not use a janky old server like yours. $10-$15/year to have access to good data is nothing and can pay for the storage. The concept the internet should be free is a complete misnomer.

non-fixie 

So, what's next? Go through the catalogs and look for the models that came in 66 cm?

non-fixie 

Gazelle (Champion Mondial and other models from Gazelle's racing department)

RIH Sport (Fongers-RIH catalog)

BTW, Batavus is Dutch, not Italian.

RiddleOfSteel

@iab the OP will be using the janky old servers for the foreseeable future until he can pay himself to save, scan, compile into a PDF, and then host all scanned catalogs presently available. For now, though, he will have to soldier on in his efforts to centralize the Herd of Cats that are vintage bicycle catalogs (and their respective web locations). Certainly not Of Highest Value presently (at least to you, and perhaps others), but it sure beats a million "Where can I find these catalogs/information on X brand?" threads, IMO. How incredibly difficult are those "lost in the ether" threads to search (for the link/info), let alone find in the first place? The answer is VERY.

Many of us know where our favorite bicycle catalogs are online--you certainly do and pay for the additional wealth of information available--but for many who are coming on board to vintage and future vintage, I stand by the centralization effort and the fact that this "something" is still "better than nothing."

@non-fixie thank you for the links and correction. They have been addressed (or are being addressed).

RiddleOfSteel

Thank you for the correction. It has been moved to the correct location!

nlerner

Another site that attempts to aggregate lots of material is https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php.

non-fixie 

But we are BF C&V!

RiddleOfSteel

Very lovely. I am about a third of the way through year-linking on buglie's site, then will get to the other indexes. Detailed work for sure, but going well--I know it will be helpful in the long run.

John Nolan 

Canada: Rocky Mountain

RiddleOfSteel

Thanks!

Ok, I have year-linked everything I know of up to this point. Future index combings and additions will have year-links/callouts going forward.

RiddleOfSteel

Presently having some link trouble. Have contacted BF about it. Will see what happens. I've posted a note at the top of the first post. The "2" versions of catalog links as well as the main Trek/Schwinn/Cannondale sites link to just fine. Will update as things move along. Thank you for your patience.

JaccoW

That's a herculean effort there @RiddleOfSteel . But I had a feeling you liked doing that after your efforts of indexing all of the 66cm Koga-Miyata models throughout the years.

If you get the linking problem sorted we could also try adding the respective threads related to the brands or certain bike in general.
Like the Miyata thread, my own Koga-Miyata thread, Cannondale, Bridgestone or Batavus threads.

But let's stick to a minimum viable product first, as they say in Agile, and see if the mods can get your problems with the links sorted.

RiddleOfSteel

Thank you! Part of me thinks that becoming a librarian or museum curator or similar keeper+cataloger--I wouldn't go so far as to say historian as that's a whole other thing--would not be the worst thing in the world. Industrial Designer to that? Whichever becomes of any of these mental indulgences, my narrow, ahh, "focus" is on full display here.

There were a number of things I did learn--and that's only scratching the surface--as I went through this, like that Gios Professionals came as tall as 66cm CTT! Now...They ran 75° HT and ST angles across all models with many, if not all, forks possessing 55mm of rake. That makes a trail count of 34mm. Active steering? You bet. They were not messing around! Alas, the steep ST angle combined with the normal-length-for-a-73°-ST-angle top tubes (59.5cm for a 66cm frame) sets the reach a good 25mm longer than what I would like. Still! Alan aluminum bikes came in 63cm CTC (or 64.8cm CTT per their catalog), which I did not know. Most everyone outside of Cannondale were chicken to offer tall aluminum frames, and that was in the '80s!

As for linking to respective threads, I like the idea. It's another good chunk of work for sure, and I agree, get the core goal/purpose/point of the thread running flawlessly and work from there. Maybe I'll take my second post and make it a link to those "Show Me Your _____ Bike" thread so as to maintain the visual and functional purity of the first post/original thread idea. Hoping Mr. cbBill will help me out or send another guy to bail me out of the ditch here.

DrIsotope

Stickied.

RiddleOfSteel

Thank you so much!! I am hoping that this will be a great and easy-to-use resource for everyone for many years to come! I've been reaching out to relevant parties concerning the inability to access some of the links, and we're still in the figuring it out stage. I will update as soon as possible. I have also been thinking about saving said images, making a PDF of each catalog, and figuring out how to host them. The hosting part is obviously a huge deal, as would be the effort to convert all the catalog .jpeg files to a PDF. I'll have to do some research and see what I find.

RiddleOfSteel

Welp, thought the links were fine all of a sudden, and then they weren't. Ugh. Still working on it. Thank you to those who have helped me out thus far!

nlerner

Another site to possibly link to is Catalogues & Manuals - Three Speed Hub. Lots of British bike mfg’s catalogs.

There’s also the Veteran-Cycles Club library (https://sites.google.com/view/cyclehistory/), but you need to be a member for access.

RiddleOfSteel

@nlerner I have added both links to the first post (in the 'general' section).

On another note, the linking issue has been resolved! I have double checked things both last night and this morning and all seems to be working splendidly. If you have any issues, let me know (PM is good), otherwise, enjoy!