1984 would be a good date to pick for the end of the classic era. That was the year of the L.A. Olympics and the beginning of funny bikes.
Leonard Bulger
Ann Arbor, MI
> On Mon, 18 Feb 2002 10:26:09 -0500 "Mark Poore" <rauler47@hotmail.com>
> writes:
> > The 18-year time-line seems somewhat strange, just cannot figure out
> > why it
> > would be 18 and not 20 years. I do believe that a fixed time frame
> > would be
> > appropriate. The only problem with that would be having a bike that
> > is shy one year or so of this time frame.
>
> I can believe 1984 as the end point for classic bikes for two reasons.
> The first, the only commonly available quality indexed shifting was a
> Sturmey Archer, and I remember it as the last season of calm before the
> indexing and cog wars started.
>
> The second, is how the market for mountain bikes exploded in next few
> years leaving the road bike market to a smaller segment. If you would
> have told me that the mountain bike thing was going to take over in 1983,
> I would not have believed it. From what I remember, past 1984 the medium
> end road bikes sat unsold while anything mountain bikeish flew out the
> door. Nobody, or the casual customer, wanted a road bike. I always saw
> the casual roadbike customer (low to medium quality stuff) as the 90
> percent that kept a shop alive, and of that a small percent would upgrade
> into the high end road stuff. A much smaller sales volume. The stuff this
> list is about.
>
>
> Steven M. Johnson, Chesapeake, VA
> http://members.home.com/
> http://www.stevenjohnson.com/
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
> Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
> Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
> http://dl.www.juno.com/