quasi
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Date: July 30, 2012 08:07PM
For several years I had a '78 Volkscycle I bought new for $400, a lot of money for a bike back them. It was very light and had really cool fingertip shifting in the ends of the handlebar - just a flick of the little finger to change gears.
90130_
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Date: July 30, 2012 08:28PM
Barcons, or bar end shifters were popular with the bike touring crowd in the 1970s and 80s..... still available today on long distance touring bicycles.
Onyma
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Date: July 30, 2012 08:29PM
I still have the bike I used to race in my teens - 1977 Raleigh Super Course. Reynolds 531 tube, Suntour hardware, bar-end shifters, 700C Weinmann Concave rims. Still love that bike.
fossil_digger
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Date: July 30, 2012 09:03PM
i was a BMX kid....Mongoose frame, red line forks, moto mags....i forget the rest.
90130_
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Date: July 30, 2012 09:24PM
I worked in a Schwinn store as a teenager, just old enough for a work permit. Spent hours after school and on weekends assembling and repairing bikes, saving up a few dollars for a Honda CR125 Elsinore MX bike I wanted. Anyway, motorized and non-motorized vehicles have been my lifetime passion, and I enjoy going to car shows and vintage motorcycle and bicycle swap meets. As an automotive tech these days, I find great pleasure working on simple machines like my bicycles.
I remember the Super Course, Onyma.....beautiful bike. I thought about getting one back then, but the owner of the Schwinn store was a cranky old bastard and would've fired me if I bought a Raleigh from his competition across the street.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 30/07/2012 09:26PM by 90130_.
90130_
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Date: July 30, 2012 09:33PM
BMX bikes I never got into, but it was fun to watch 'em race at the local track. That Mongoose BMX would fetch a small fortune on a certain auction site these days.
fossil_digger
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Date: July 30, 2012 10:23PM
it was a $500.00 bike in 1978
90130_
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Date: July 31, 2012 04:18AM
You can easily double that now.
pro_junior
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Date: July 31, 2012 04:21AM
I had a five-speed with a banana seat and a gear shift on the top tube and one of the pedals was just the stem from the middle of the peddle and it was bent so my foot slipped off alot...no idea what brand it was...;(
90130_
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Date: July 31, 2012 05:14AM
My younger brothers and I all got Schwinn "Krates" one Christmas....1968 I think. These had the 5 speed gear shift on the top tube, ape hanger handlebars, and springer front forks. They were the so called muscle bikes of the time with plenty of imitators from other brands. Schwinn and other manufacturers stopped putting top tube mounted gear shifters on kid's bikes in 1975 thanks to a mandate by the Consumer Product Safety Commission due to unsubstantiated reports of youngsters hanging their nuts on 'em when they bailed. All bullshit overeaching by a government agency's safety-crats.
