auchencrow

Bikes have been with us a long time, but never like back in the early 70’s with practically everyone running out to buy some gas-pipe 10-speed marvel, with a giant chromed pie plate and curly handlebars.

Why did they become so popular?

Was it a Communist conspiracy to undermine the morals of our youth?


Was it some Madison Avenue sleazy city slicker, selling us bikes with sin?


Was it a hippie-psychedelic thing, the reason for which is lost in the void along with all the rest of our hazy memories from the era?



. . . Seriously, can anyone explain why it became such a phenomenon?

OldsCOOL

Freedom. I was no longer held hostage in my teen years stuck out on a country road with nothing to do.

Then came the Motobecane Mirage in '73.

iab

The oil embargo.

Fast Cloud

OPEC oil embargo---fear. (we need another, IMO)

auchencrow

I would subscribe to that - except that the bike boom started prior to 1973:

jimmuller 

Oh, Auchen! You missed a key reason. Maybe your recollections of the period have been wiped out by (1) a Communist conspiracy; (B) a chemical spill (and I ain't sayin' what the chemicals might have been); (III) selective recall-elimination via a secret government program.

There were two oil embargoes by OPEC. IIRC, the years were '72 and '73-'74. Gasoline prices spiked and during the second embargo at least long lines formed at gas pumps. Some places had odd/even rationing. Even during the first "crisis" people suddenly became conscious of spending more money on transportation than they had previously. So a public awareness of conservation came into being.

A second factor is that us Boomers (which I would guess includes you) were coming of age where we had the funds to buy bikes and the zeal of youth to want to. There's nothing like a demographics bump to push an emerging market!

Finally, it appears (to me anyway) through the lens of history that the very existence of decent bikes wasn't commonly known in the US until then. Prior to that time I wouldn't have known a derailleur from a can opener. But as I recall, learning of the existence of wide gear ranges and light frames was an eye-opener - as a boy I'd liked riding but as a 23-year-old I could see the obvious benefits and thus had to have one.

Fast Cloud

From 4 to 8.5 million over ten years is hardly a boom. I'd like to see that chart continue for a little bit.

KonAaron Snake 

I think it was a perfect storm...fitness consciousness had arrived, boomers had money and time for recreation, Merckx had popularized the sport and these bikes were becoming available.

That's why it made it so easy for the Masons, Illuminati, International Communism and, of course, the zionists...to use ray guns against people who didn't have tin hat protection, convincing them that bikes were the next fad. That and the fluoride in the water.

nlerner

According to this article, the energy crisis of 1973-74 occurred at the end of the bike boom. Peak bike sales year was 1973, and then a big fall of to 1975.



I think one of the big factors was simply the explosion of "Baby Boom" population. That article makes a strong case that the number of adult riders increased greatly in the late 60s/early 70s; thus, a "lifestyle" change was in effect.

Neal

Fast Cloud

^^^Ah...that chart's more like it.

bibliobob

The gas shortage may have lengthened the bike boom, but it didn't cause it. This did:

1) Fitness boom

2) Embrace of European style

3) More disposable income

4) It was just plain a popular fad (much like today).

Of course, I was only a toddler at the time, so take my answer with a grain of salt

auchencrow

Jim - I'll never forget the gas rationing and lines at the pump, and I'll concede that may have amplified the boom some, but it was already underway.

I truly like your explanation on the "coming of age demographics", and the awakening to really decent road bikes in the US market - (not that I was riding a really decent road bike back then).

auchencrow

mudboy

This. Plain and simple. I remember (I was born in 1966) that there were "even" and "odd" days (or weeks?) where only people with even or odd last digits on their license plates could get gas. Fortunately, I grew up on a farm and we had our own gas tank & pump. However, it was enough to get my parents on bikes, and much hilarity ensued.

Pete

wrk101

Nope, really simple, the baby boomers all hit the bicycle riding age. When I was in high school, Schwinns were on allocation, it took me months to get my Schwinn Continental, and paid full MSRP of course. I didn't understand the value of a nicer used bike back then. Could have done a lot better buying used. Oh well, it was stolen anyway, so at least it wasn't a PX10!!!!

StanSeven

Baby boomers becoming aware of fitness, having sedimentary jobs, and just need to get out and "play." Many started out with bikes and then realized running was faster and easier to do. That's why many bikes were purchased but not ridden.

Picchio Special

The "first bike boom" was not the one that occurred in the 1970's.

late

Baby boomers.

Demographics 101

There were just too many kids, in 1970 I bought my
first road bike, a Schwinn Varsity when when I went to college.

To a degree, it was a fad, just like hot cars had been a few year earlier.
By the mid 70s when it ended, the Boomers were out of school, had jobs,
and were buying cars and houses instead.

When gas prices spiked a while back, I got a powerful sense of deja vu, when
all those basically new bikes got taken out of the garage by their kids.
That didn't last either.

But it was nice to see.

repechage

That chart really resonates with my experience looking for a bike in 1971-1972 shops on Saturday were going crazy, in 1974 some folk were looking for their next, better bike. Too bad the chart does not extend to 1979 where there was a surge again, that time with customers looking for a bike to haul groceries home, odd /even rationing was back and so were the lines. A number of smaller shops popped up in the early 70's, some with knowledgeable owners, some not. Bikeology opened in 1972, their main line was Peugeot, later expanded into mail order, then multi shops, sold off the name and most of the shops and became Supergo, then sold out to Performance decades later.

Another interesting 70's trend, there were 15,000 licensed bike racers in 1975 at the peak, then it dropped off FAST.

auchencrow

Wait - It's coming in clearer to me now. . . like, oh wow.

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old's'cool

...you mean they were leading dysentery lives?

Scooper

It was the confluence of several factors, but the influence of Dr. Paul Dudley White, Dwight Eisenhower's cardiologist, was huge.

Paul Dudley White was a proponent of adult bicycle riding as a form of exercise that could reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. In the sixties and seventies, Schwinn used White's advocacy extensively in its advertising.

1970 consumer catalog:



1971 Paramount Owner's Manual:

big chainring 

I really dont think gas and oil had much to do with the Boom. As I lived it, it was more due to the spike in population, and the baby boom.

Being a baby boomer my school class size was the largest thruout my school years. Largest graduating class for grade school right - thru HS in 1976. The Bike boom was at its peak when I was 13-14 years old and hence my first 10 speed was purchased then. Along with all the other 13-14 yr old kids buying bikes at the same time, entering HS and all.

This along with all the college aged kids looking for cheap transportation around campus' created a huge demand for bikes.

Also economics played into the Boom. Wasnt the dollar fairly strong in comparison to european currencies at the time. And England was in a recession around then. This also led to a large european travel boom.

Interestingly today everyone knows Lance Armstrong, a few may have heard of Greg LeMond, but back in the 70's very few people had any idea who Eddy Merckx was. The european racing scene was hardly known of. Wide World of Sports would give you 20 seconds of the Tour de France if something out of the ordinary happened, such as Merckx getting punched on a climb, and that was it.

As a side note, it was just a couple years after I had graduated high school, many schools built in the early 60"s were being repurposed or torn down because of the smaller student population. So the bike industry hit a slow period. Many of the bike shops that poped up during the boom closed down.

Scooper

Right; it was in the 1890s after the invention of the "safety bicycle". The proliferation of automobiles in the early 1900s ended it.

bradtx

I think it was the sheer number of buyers. Post WWII baby boomers (and their children) were in general an outside activity generation and as we aged we continued to be so. I've had a bicycle since eight or nine and can't see myself without one.

Times have changed with cable TV and the internet, sadly. When Hurricane Ike hit in 2008 everyone in my neighborhood, unshackled from indoor activity by the loss of electricity, were out in their front yards much like it was when I built in '77 and on through to the mid '90s. I was a little sad for those kids when the electricity was restored as they went back inside to be entertained.

Brad