kr32

Budds Creek is much different now then back in the day.
I still once in awhile search e-bay for blue 250 Pursang. My last/favorite bike

hwycruiser

I remember being put on a waiting list to get my Schwinn Varsity 10 speed in the early 70s. It was a "hot" item back then.

XR2

Oh yeah. It's kinda scary these days. I still have a 1980 YZ465. Hijack completed please return to your original thoughts.

DnvrFox

Man, do I feel disconnect with this thread. Guess I will stick to the 65-85+ thread. - a teenager in the 70's - Well, I never!!

Dan Burkhart 

My teenage years ended early in the 70s and apart from a very short period in the mid 70s, it was a lost decade for me as far as cycling goes. I bet I didn't ride more than 100 miles the whole decade.

stapfam

Have to admit that the 70's were a bit past my age of youth aswell.

Now if we were taking about the 60's??- but if you lived them- you should not be able to remember them.

AzTallRider

Ain't it the truth. If you lived in California, and had a pre "Nox Emissions" car, you sure didn't want to give it up. I rebuilt a '63 Chevy Impala station wagon (was my dad's) from the block up - 327 with a 4 barrel carb. Nothing newer ran as sweet. I remember coasting down a long hill in neutral once (must have been almost out of gas), and the cold light came back on, it ran so cool. Nothing like driving (or riding) something you've put your own sweat and scraped knuckles into. It got around 13 mpg, which I thought was great.

Hermes

That is a scary thread which I have not opened. i do not want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

DnvrFox

There is wisdom and understanding in that thread far beyond the comprehension of someone who was a teenager in the 70's!! But, your computer will explode if you enter and don't qualify.

trackhub

Ahh, the 70s! It was a pretty cool decade to be a teenager. The music, the muscle cars, (American Motors AMX, anyone? Little 2-seater coupe with a fairly good sized engine,
that went like a bat of freakin' hell. Uh, don't ask, OK?)Learning to use a slide rule (I still have mine, and I've acquired a few more since) Girls wearing wicked short skirts and boots to school* ... What more could you want? Oh, back to bikes...

-In the Boston area, the "ten speed boom" was going full swing. The two most popular names were Raleigh and Fuji. Cyclists who were more "knowledgeable" and who had more capital,
went for some of the Italian makes, which were considered very exotic at the time. Yes, there were plenty Schwinn varsity bikes as well.

-"Richard's Bicycle Book" was very popular among riders of all types. Cover price: $1.95. I still have it. Kind of funny, reading through it now.

-Bicycle theft was very common, everywhere. This is what gave rise to an entire new industry: High Tech bicycle locks. As soon as you said you were getting a ten speed,
someone would almost immediately say, "You better get a Kryptonite lock to go with it!" Or, "Better watch out! I hear those ten speeds are getting ripped off". It was true, of course. If you left a ten speed near a store, library, or the public swimming pool, and you left it unlocked, it would just be gone by the time you returned to it, even if you were only gone for a few minutes.

-Most bike shops around here in the early 70s were an add-on to another business, usually lawn care and garden shops, or hardware stores. My favorite LBS was originally part of
of a hardware store. ("Your authorized Raleigh Dealer!") Today, the hardware business is long gone, but the bike shop is going stronger than ever, and has an enormous presence on the web.

-Almost no one had a helmet. The only helmets around were the Bell Tourister, and the European leather "hair nets" Yep, the tourister offered protection, but was heavy compared to today's helmets. It also made you look as though you had a salad bowl on your head.

-Bike shorts, gloves, jerseys, all of that stuff was still a few years away for me. I did not have pair of cycling shorts until '79.

I agree that the technology is much better today. But, I still like steel frames. Some of "this new fangled stuff" just doesn't interest me.

* Note: When I was a high school freshman, there was this very old female teacher, who went around with a ruler, measuring girls' skirts. More than three inches
above the knee and the student in question got sent home, no further discussion. Well, the old battle axe retired at the and of the year, and then the sky
became the limit. Sometimes, things just go your way.

Phil85207

I never had a new bike till I was about 35, somewhere around 1975 or so. I never paid much attention to how they were made or what size they were. I just made do with what ever I could get at the time when I was a kid. My first new bike was a Panasonic road bike and I didn't have a clue why I got that one. I guess the sales person just felt thats what I needed. Lots of bikes since then, but I was never one much for looking at the design complexities.

Dan Burkhart 

I had a hot little AMC car, but it wasn't an AMX. It was a 1972 Gremlin X, the first brand new car I ever owned. 304 cid, 3 on the floor, went like stink.

This shot would have been taken about 1975 I think.

qcpmsame 

Another 70's motocrosser here and still racing on a Yamaha YZ426F along with my cycling habit which I feel will outlast the MX racing judging by my health. The bicycles keep me feeling young and the feel and handling of my Cannondale is worlds above my Continental. I just wish I had kept my '74 Raleigh International with all campy Record, including the brakes. At least I married my high school sweatheart and can keep that great memory alive.

Bill

NOS88

Man, I have a hard time remembering last year, let alone 4 decades ago.

rumrunn6

um yeah ... the 70s ... I liked bikes but not dancing "The Hustle"

BigBlueToe

Curtis, you are very brave (and very secure) posting that picture. The few existing pictures of me in those days are under lock and key and will stay that way until I retire. I can't have my students seeing them.

I had a Raleigh, like I said. My dad was a Raleigh man, so I wanted a Raleigh more than any other brand. I remember Peugots being very popular and highly sought after, as were Motobecane, Nishiki, Panasonic, Volkscycyle...was there one called Fisher?

Oh, and I drove my mom's Rambler in the 70's. It was a beige (looked kinda pink) American I think? 3-speed on the stick. It got me around so I can't disrespect it too much. It sure wasn't very cool though. My older brother used to rent cars for big dates. He would be too embarrassed to pull up to his date's house in the pink Rambler!

rdtompki

I was a teenager in the 60's. Had a Rayleigh "English Racer" with a three speed Sturmey Archer hub. Rode that thing everywhere until a car made a left turn into me at an intersection and bent the frame around my leg. That was my junior year in high school and I don't remember owning another bike until the early 80's when my kids got old enough to ride. Rode for 2-3 years followed by another 20+ year hiatus, but we're making up for lost time now on the tandem.

mkane77g

That lawnmower didn't run, but it had a 2 stroke engine, the start of my gearhead days. Blame that one on dad.

Shifty

I started racing in 1974 with a team in the Phoenix area (training mostly north of Scottsdale), it was fun. I bought a Peugeot UX-10, a good racer that I could afford (barely), but a couple team mates had Pinnarello bikes that I lusted over, the Campy components so much nicer than the Simplex and Mafac on mine. It was a fun time, but I gave up racing as soon as mountain bikes hit the scene.

momule

My best friend and I saved lawn mowing money and what we could steal to buy Schwinn Super Sports for a summer after graduation of tour biking from Omaha to Lake of the Woods, Ont. We went out every day and put huge miles on those bikes in training for the trip for over a year. Then he met Laurie and then he broke up with Laurie and then I met Laurie and we never made it to Lake of the Woods. Both of the bikes were great ten speeds and she was a pretty amazing gal. I miss all four of them and also the missed trip. I can still let a pretty face get in the way of biking if I'm not careful but I have better cadence on my bike.

FL_MarkD

Nice story momule!

Ah the 70's, had a great Schwinn Varsity in brown. My claim to fame was that I could wheelie that thing a long way. Once I was able to wheelie one handed I started shifting it so I could just keep going and accelerating. I can't believe that the front wheel held up to all that abuse. But then again it probably weighed four pounds without a tire and tube.

I still like the look of a horizontal top tube, but most of the modern bikes are sloping. They all work, some just better than others. I had a Serotta Atlanta circa 1998 that I sold last year and that to me was a classic steel frame, traditional geometry bike. I miss it, but he Fierte outperforms it hands down.

Mark

Artkansas 

I can remember one time getting to the top of the Baldwin Hills in L.A. in the '70s. I could see the mountains in the distance, but my tongue tasted of lead.

toobusi

In 1978 I worked in my LBS and was riding a basic Raleigh Record, finally bought the bike my boss was given from one of his suppliers, that had been displayed at the NYC Bike show. It was a Garlatti, Columbus SL Frame fully chromed, with Campy Grand Sport components, I rode that great bike for 7 years even though it was always a little big for me. Two years ago, I pulled it from storage, cleaned it, tuned it, put on new rubber and sold it on e-bay, $300. (original price in 1978 $400) Some gent in New Mexico is doing morning training rides on it. Better than sitting in the shed.

Altair 4

toobusi, you have inspired me. I have a Brazilian-made Mundo Cycles Caloi Racer in the basement that I bought new in about 1974 or '75 while in high school. I think I'm going to resurrect that baby this spring - throw on some new 27 inch rubber and brake pads and see what it's like to ride that old steel frame. Could be fun!

toobusi

Go for it, once if finished the restoration, it brought great memories of great rides, I almost kept it. But I have to many hobbies and to many toys, and was running out of space. In 1994, I moved to a part of Long Island that's not very bike friendly, and pretty much put my bikes away for good, now its 16 years later and 40 pounds heavier.
In July my old riding partner and I decided to "get back into it" so i bought a new bike, a Scattante R-670, so far about 800 miles and 12 pounds off, can't wait for the spring.