Kommisar89

Not sure why I was thinking about this the other day but the thought occured to me, was there a "bike boom" in the rest of the world? Every American cyclist of a certain age knows of the early 70's bike boom. It's one of the defining events in US cycling history. But what about the rest of the world. Well, western world at least. The video clip in the "New found footage" thread (https://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=373782) would seem to indicate that there was a boom of sorts going on in Britain. On the other hand bikes were long popular on the continent. And what about you guys down under and you folks in the great white north? Any bike booms there?

Sixty Fiver

I think we experienced a bike boom quite similar to the US as our culture (Canadian) is in many ways similar... in the modern day we differ in that we enjoy a higher rate of ridership than the US.

In many other countries cycling has always been and remains a popular and very common form of transportation whereas North American riders still tend to be recreational rather than utilitarian cyclists.

T-Mar

Actually, if you look at the UK sales figures they did not have a North American style "boom" with a big large increase followe by a sharp decrease over a short period. UK sales actually went into a small recession in the 1960s, then started a slow, relatively steady climb throughtout the 1970s, with no sharp falloff. See Hadland's charts at https://www.hadland.me.uk/raleigh.htm .

OLDYELLR

Yeah, I think it was a North American thing, perhaps due to the spike in oil prices and the fitness thing. Of course, the huge boost in exports from Europe didn't hurt the industry over there and allowed many factories to stay open at least until production shifted to Asia.

graywolf

It was actually a credit card boom. Suddenly everyone could buy whatever it was they had always wanted but didn't have the cash for. It also caused the massive inflation that was the other notable thing about the '70's.

Was there, done that, they reprocessed the tee shirt

sykerocker 

Keep in mind the American attitude. The Bike Boom last about four years due to the following reasons:

1. Thats how long it took for the novelty to wear off.
2. All those new cyclists discovered that you actually had to ride year after year to gain the benefits of the exercise. Too much work.
3. People got used to gasoline prices, so they quit complaining about it, went back and bought yet another V-8 automobile, and dropped that silly idea of actually cycling to work everyday.
4. The next fad was already on the horizon - disco!

alanbikehouston

The 1970 to 1975 "bike boom" in the USA was focused heavily on males in the age 16 to age 30 bracket. Due to the "Baby Boom", there was a huge number of males in America in that age group. Just as EVERY guy who is 19 in 2007 must have an iPhone (or at least an iPod), every guy was was 19 in 1972 thought he needed a ten-speed bike. Needed to HAVE one, not necessary RIDE one.,

There was a bit of the "Cabbage Patch" doll about the whole deal: fifty million ten speed bikes sold in five years, yet by 1977, you could ride down a country road all day and not see a single other person on a bike. And, among those fifty million road bikes, the Schwinn Varsity was actually BETTER than the average, in terms of its build quality, components, hubs, brakes, and durability. Most of the ten speed bikes sold at K-Mart, Woolco, Sears, and Ace Hardware were of much lesser quality...some were sheer junk.

The "elite" ten speed bikes of that era that are treasured today (Reynolds 531 frame and fork, all Campy drivetrains) were never more than 1% or 2% of the market.

The good things about the "boom" was that 10% or so of the folks who bought a bike during the boom stuck with cycling as a regular part of their life. That "core" group of customers made possible the rise of companies such as Trek and Cannondale, focused on higher quallity bikes.


Looking at UK publications, I get the impression that THEIR biggest bike boom was 1985 to 1995, with the advent of mountain bikes. The UK had LOTS of utility bikes and a good number of ten-speed road bikes, but the mountain bike reached millions of folks who might not want to ride in urban traffic, or who wanted a tougher sort of bike when they did ride in urban traffic.

OLDYELLR

Well, that was the case in North America also. And it was the same boomers who bought the MTBs because their guts were too big and necks were too stiff to ride their old 10-speeds. MTBs were considered "sensible" by the ageing boomers and "cool" by the kids and yuppies at the same time. Just like SUVs 10 years later.

Kommisar89

Wouldn't the same have applied to all the other countries as well? I seem to remember something called the "Pillenknick" or something like that marking the end of the boomer generation in Germany in the 60's. I would suspect something similar everywhere.

Mos6502

I've heard people from the U.K. speak of a 10 speed boom in the 70s. That while there was no significant increase overall, roadsters and 3 speed sales dwindled while 10 speed sales took off.

caterham

l recall two distinct and separate bike booms- Tho the early-mid 70's boom was significant & probably resulted in the greater number of sales, to my recollection,the first and by far the craziest post-war bike boom was during the mid-60's when bikes of any & every kind and quality were being sold out of shopping center parking lots , warehouses, gas stations, appliance & hardware stores, etc. as fast as they could be unloaded from the truck. I seriously doubt that there was any way of accurately accounting sales by the industry at that time.

roccobike

Yup, It was the "cool" thing to do. It was very cool to ride a 10 speed racer back then. It was not as cool to ride a 3 speed and totally uncool to ride a coaster brake bike. I don't recall any of my freinds or me buying a bike because of the oil crisis. It was the cool thing to do, especially at the beach. When I went to the Raleigh dealer, they had a line, like at a bank. When it was your turn, you told the guy at the bike shop what you wanted and they brought it out for a trial ride. A new Raleigh Record went for $89 on sale. The two big brand names were Raleigh and Schwinn. The knock on the Schwinn was the weight of the Varsity. Peugeots were nice, but pricey. And of course all us "experts" knew that the Japanese bikes that were just starting to show up in the shops were cheap junk. I recall Fuji being the first Japanese bike that I saw.
It's amazing to me now to look back at how little we knew and how incorrect some of our assumptions were.

jimblairo

Quebec has the fifth greatest density of cyclists in the world. It is 1.5 times that of Ontario and B.C. and 2 times that of the U.S.

It started with a guy by the name of Bob Silverman who advocated for cyclists and he ran into a lot of walls but he used publicity stunts to make his point and draw attention.

In one stunt, cyclists could not use the subway. Bob got on carrying a ladder, then a stuffed deer and then a stuffed baby elephant. He made his point.

Quebec has some 650km of paths and the gov't puts about 3 million a year into the cycling infastructure and they also sponsor a womens world cup tour and 2 men's pro tours.

Quebec also has about 70% of the bike manufacturing and distribution business in Canada and as a result there is a lot of sponsorship for development teams.

Velo Quebec is the leading advocacy group and runs tours locally and internationally.

I ride daily and I would estimate that 50 to 60% of the cyclists I see are age 50 or over with a least 5 or 6 seniors clubs in the Montreal area.

bigbossman 

In the beginning, a lot of them were. I've had my hands on early Bridgestones and Miyatas - I'd take a comparable year Varsity every time. In fact, when Japan was first exporting cheap goods, most of it was just plain cheap crap. A "Made in Japan" sticker was rightly recognized as a sign of poor quality.

Then they got their ***** together, ate our lunch, and beat us with our own lunch box.

Kommisar89

I remember that - "Made in Japan" was found on cheap plastic toys, tiny little cars, bad Godzilla movies, and the components on cheap 45-lb bikes you bought at the department store. Some company called "Shimano". Who would buy that junk? We wanted the "good" stuff like Simplex Prestige derailleurs and steel cottered cranks

Kommisar89

Yep, I remember that too - the poor kids rode hand-me-down coaster brake bikes. Our neighbor Mr. Richard across the street rode a 3-speed in his Burmuda shorts and tall black socks (probably still does to this day ). Well to do kids rode Schwinns. But to be really cool you needed a European bike - and you pretty much had to buy it yourself 'cause your parents wouldn't buy an expensive bike with some name they couldn't even pronounce. Raleigh and Peugeot were big, along with Gitane. But the coolest of all in my neck of the woods were Atala and Bottecchia. I can still remember my dad asking, "What the hell is a Bott-a-CHEE-ah and how much did you pay for that damned thing?" (my dad sounds a lot like Archie Bunker with similar attitudes about foreign things )

I'm not sure we were all wrong though. I don't really remember complete Japanese bikes until a bit later, the late 70's maybe but they were a lot like Japanese cars at the time - solid, reliable, functional, and reasonably priced - none of which interested me in the least bit at the time. In cars I wanted a fire engine red Trans Am with the big screaming chicken on the hood. My taste in bicycles was similar and the Japanese just weren't meeting it.

caterham

even today,when i hear the words 'Shimano' and 'indexing' together, I still can't help but think of those horrid toy Shimano Positron derailleurs on 70's Huffy's. who'da thought the maker of the worst crap ever stuck on a bicycle outside of france, would ever amount to anything, eh?

sykerocker 

After having lived with the C. Itoh, I can understand where the 'junk' attitude came from. In Erie, it took Fuji to change that perception. And we were utterly amazed when we unpacked that first blue Fuji Finest! Gorgeous construction, and paint job three feet deep, and it only cost $265.00, against $425.00 for the all-Campy Atala. The Atala was dead in the water by comparison!

Gary Fountain

I don't remember a 'boom' in Australia. I was buying bikes in the 70's but the number of bike shops were not doing a roaring trade.

The early 70's was an era of high powered V8 cars and cheap petrol. The great distance between places you wanted to go meant that the car was the 'go to' form of transport. Our public transport system is, and has been a joke (just this week in Melbourne - bikes have been banned from peak hour public transport) and it was difficult to rely on a bus/train timetable.

Our roads have never been bike friendly; they are generally too narrow. The road I commute on today is a 2 way road. The lanes are not wide enough to accept a bike and a car together in the lane (80KPH / 45MPH speedlimit) - the car has to enter the lane on the opposite side to pass the bike safely - you can imagine the ill feeling this promotes between bike rider and car driver. It is better now - in the 70's bikes were just not considered.

I would say that there is a bike boom now in Australia. Dearer fuel prices and 10 - 15 years of local councils actually considering bikes as transport and constructing some roads with bike lanes as well as some bike paths (where convenient) have seen an increase in the number of bike shops.

With the ban on bikes on public transport during peak hours in Melbourne - it highlights the complete lack of understanding of government for the benefits of bicycles to the health and transport of the people. We are seeing a boom but it's not the BOOM we should be seeing.

Bikedued

That is just insane? I could just imagine getting a ticket for that, or arrested, lol. That would last about 5 minutes here, before people would be protesting in front of City Hall. Geeez. Bike racks are just about on every bus here in town, and they get used. Of course it would suck if the bus hit something.,,,,BD

I guess somebody could trip over the pedals, or gasp (((Get dirty from brushing up against it)))

Kommisar89

Funny that Fuji was first to the market and they seem to be the only Japanese brand I commonly see out there still today. I haven't considered buying one but they appear to be very nice bikes and very reasonably priced for what you get. I'd still rather the Atala. Well, a Bianchi anyway today since Atala doesn't produce high-end road bikes anymore and Bottecchia isn't exporting to the US (Although I wouldn't mind having a new 8avio shipped from a freindly bike shop in Britain).

sykerocker 

When I got back into cycling three years ago, after getting the first bike fixed and back on the road ('64 Raleigh Gran Prix - I figured I'd just start off with what I remembered and inherently understood) my next project was to build up a bike as a crash course in everything I'd missed in 28 years. After a couple of weeks of research, bike shop window shopping (in that 28 years, I'd never stepped into a bike shop nor followed anything about either the industry or the sport), and eBay hunting, I started collecting 9-speed Ultegra (I remembered Shimano very well, and still remembered Campagnolo as being way too expensive for my tastes). Go for almost-state-of-the-art, keep the cost down, still learn the technology. Kept some of my old habits, however - the wheels were built up with tubular rims.

When it came time to find a frame, I naturally went for brand names I knew from the old days, and ended up with a brand new '03 Fuji Finest frameset, bought for the princely sum of $75.00. Imagine my shock to discover that the Finest was now the next to the cheapest model in the line.

Outdone only by the amazed looks on bike shop employees when, during conversation, I mentioned remembering the Finest as the top of the line bike, and only a notch under a 531-tubed all Nuevo Record bike.

There are moments when it's really fun to be an out-of-date old fart.

Still have the Fuji, enjoy riding it to no end, and I keep thinking of replacing all the Ultegra onto something aluminum or carbon (I've yet to ride anything but steel). Never seem to seriously get around it, for some reason.

Kommisar89

Uh? Bikedued, do you live in the same Houston I lived in? The one in Texas right? I don't remember it being bike freindly. More likely to get run off the road by an urban cowboy in an F-350 dualie. As he drove to his job as computer tech or something. Maybe things have changed in the last few years.

Banzai

That's pretty much the Texas I've come to know since I've moved to this state.

Bikedued

In Del Rio? It must have grown as fast as El Paso if you're having a problem there, hehe. Yeah, it's still the same Houston, but bikes are not banned from public transportation? They have racks on the buses so you can ride to and from your stop, throw the bike on the rack, and get on the bus. Rail system? Yeah right. Maybe in another 30 years. Right now we have a similar rail system to the Seattle Monorail. It goes to one place and back, with stops in between.,,,,BD


But yeah, there are a bunch of drunken jackasses here. Much like any city with millions of people.