I graduated from my Sears 3-speed that I had gotten for my 12th birthday to my first 10-speed Fuji all-steel 'Special Tourer' in Spring of '74, then bought another one three months later after the first one was stolen from the bike rack at the high school...

Once I got to college in Fall '76, I experienced what a difference it was to ride a quality lightweight bike - one of my roommates had a Viscount Pro with the aluminum 'death fork' - I never heard of the aluminum fork being an issue until recently here on BF.net. Anyway, I sold my two-year old Special Tourer to my buddy's sister and upgraded to the Fuji S-10S Special Road Racer I still ride today. I went from a 38-pound steel bike with a three-piece cottered steel crank, to a hi-tensile steel frame with alloy components that weighed 'only' 26 pounds! My other roommate had a 40-pound Iverson department store bike, and he ended up upgrading to a Viscount GT...