50 Years Ago: April 1973 in Bicycling! magazine
04-09-23, 10:38 AM
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50 Years Ago: April 1973 in Bicycling! magazine
Articles/columns included are:
QUESTION MAN
BICYCLE WORKSHOP: Polishing Alloy Parts
"Bike Racing in the Desert"
SHOP TALK
The following articles from this issue were posted previously:
ROAD TEST: FUJI Special Road Racer (Road Test/Bike Review (1973) Fuji Special Road Racer)
ROAD TEST: CRESCENT "Pepita" Special (Road Test/Bike Review (1973) Crescent "Pepita" Special)
As usual, let me know if you'd like to see something else listed in the ToC and I'll add it in a reply to this post or send you a pdf.
If the latter, just send me a PM that includes your email address.
QUESTION MAN
BICYCLE WORKSHOP: Polishing Alloy Parts
"Bike Racing in the Desert"
SHOP TALK
The following articles from this issue were posted previously:
ROAD TEST: FUJI Special Road Racer (Road Test/Bike Review (1973) Fuji Special Road Racer)
ROAD TEST: CRESCENT "Pepita" Special (Road Test/Bike Review (1973) Crescent "Pepita" Special)
As usual, let me know if you'd like to see something else listed in the ToC and I'll add it in a reply to this post or send you a pdf.
If the latter, just send me a PM that includes your email address.
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WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
WTB: Bicycle Guide issues 1984 (any); Jun 1987; Jul, Nov/Dec 1992; Apr 1994; 1996 -1998 (any)
WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
WTB: Bicycle Guide issues 1984 (any); Jun 1987; Jul, Nov/Dec 1992; Apr 1994; 1996 -1998 (any)
WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
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04-09-23, 11:58 AM
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señor miembro
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Must've been difficult/impossible to find a clincher wheelset in 700c back in the day.
I usually think most everything was better in the '70s compared to today. Maybe not with wheel options...
I usually think most everything was better in the '70s compared to today. Maybe not with wheel options...
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04-09-23, 12:51 PM
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Thanks for posting this.
I used to ride the Mining Country road race in east-central Arizona - a tough loop with more than one 10+% climb. Also had my worst racing crash in the Mining Country race near Winkelman (pack crash - many of us went down). I got into non-neighborhood cycling a bit after the Nationals races in Bisbee - would've been nice to have seen that, but wasn't aware at the time and as a non-driving high schooler might have had trouble getting there.
I've run into people who believed the early 1970s bike boom coincided with the oil embargo / energy crisis and big run-up in gasoline prices. There are several other references that show the bike boom peaked prior to the energy crisis, but this is another example, noting softening demand several months prior to the oil embargo & price runup.
I used to ride the Mining Country road race in east-central Arizona - a tough loop with more than one 10+% climb. Also had my worst racing crash in the Mining Country race near Winkelman (pack crash - many of us went down). I got into non-neighborhood cycling a bit after the Nationals races in Bisbee - would've been nice to have seen that, but wasn't aware at the time and as a non-driving high schooler might have had trouble getting there.
I've run into people who believed the early 1970s bike boom coincided with the oil embargo / energy crisis and big run-up in gasoline prices. There are several other references that show the bike boom peaked prior to the energy crisis, but this is another example, noting softening demand several months prior to the oil embargo & price runup.
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https://www.richardcmoeur.com/bikestuf.html
Richard C. Moeur, PE - Phoenix AZ, USA
https://www.richardcmoeur.com/bikestuf.html
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04-09-23, 02:10 PM
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I'd love to see the article on how to buy a second hand bike. It might work as a separate thread. Maybe the C&V folks can learn something from a C&V article on buying used bikes, 
.
.
04-09-23, 05:34 PM
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WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
WTB: Bicycle Guide issues 1984 (any); Jun 1987; Jul, Nov/Dec 1992; Apr 1994; 1996 -1998 (any)
WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
WTB: Bicycle Guide issues 1984 (any); Jun 1987; Jul, Nov/Dec 1992; Apr 1994; 1996 -1998 (any)
WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
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04-09-23, 06:32 PM
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04-09-23, 07:26 PM
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04-10-23, 03:30 AM
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I’d like to see the article on Crescent Pepita, page 28, if you have time. I sure enjoy my ‘74. Thanks.
04-10-23, 06:02 AM
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I included the link to that article in the first post of this thread.
__________________
WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
WTB: Bicycle Guide issues 1984 (any); Jun 1987; Jul, Nov/Dec 1992; Apr 1994; 1996 -1998 (any)
WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
WTB: Bicycle Guide issues 1984 (any); Jun 1987; Jul, Nov/Dec 1992; Apr 1994; 1996 -1998 (any)
WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
04-10-23, 06:37 AM
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I have a lot of fond memories of the era reported in this issue of Bicycling! I was working on vacations, Friday evenings, and Saturdays at Bikecology in Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Culver City, and/or Marina Del Rey to supplement my teaching assistant salary to pay for graduate school at UCLA. My wife and I got married two months after that issue of Bicycling came out, and we were living the proverbial car-free, bicycle-dependent "starving students" lifestyle during the 1973 gasoline shortage. I had completed the Los Angeles Wheelmen Double Century (my one big athletic achievement in life) the year before, on my 1971 Nishiki Competition. For me, the midgrade and better bicycles of that general era, spanning the 1960s into the early 1980s, still look right and feel right. I was also an avid Bicycling! reader, so I appreciate this thread, as do a lot of us who are "vintage" collectors of vintage bicycles.
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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
"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
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04-11-23, 07:46 AM
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It was. When I built my loaded touring frame in 1981, I designed it to use 27" wheels, because only real bike shops handled 700C tires, and the small town hardware stores I'd likely need to visit to buy replacement tires would only have 27" tires.
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