In 1962, at age 13, I started training with a neighborhood group in my hometown of Somerville, NJ. I had the use of a circa 1950 Drysdale Velox Red Devil track bike that had been purchased new for my brother. It had Williams 5-pin cranks, Brooks B-17 saddle, 26x1-1/4" clinchers, steel track bars, and rat trap pedals. It was a shade big for me at 23". After about a year of saving my allowance and earning some extra money as a paper route substitute, I purchased a barely used 22" one-year old Schwinn Paramount track bike from a member of the neighborhood group. I paid $150 for it and it looked virtually new--flamboyant red, too. That was a lot of money at age 15 in 1964. All Campy; that was hot stuff. I put a UnicaNitor plastic saddle on it and a Titan underslung track stem. Pretty exciting for a 15 year-old. Not too long after that I got a used Fiorelli road bike--my first 10-speed. I painted the frame, upgraded the cranks to Stronglight alloys, put a plastic saddle (a cheaper Japanese imitation of the UnicaNitor) on it, Weinmann center-pull brakes, Campy seatpost, all the latest rages. In '65 I won a junior race in West Milford, NJ, riding the Fiorelli. The prize was a chrome road bike frame in just my size; it had no markings; I was told it was a "Sun" frame, made in Florida; it was nice. I transferred the parts from the Fiorelli to the new frame. That same year a friend and I went in together on an old Oscar Egg track tandem. I think we paid $35 or $50 for it. We took it apart, painted the frame, replaced some of the components with modern parts we had sitting around and we rode it a number of times just for kicks. It was a blast! Sold the Oscar Egg--darn! I kept the wooden rims and hubs from that bike for the next 40 years or so until I sold them on eBay just a couple of years ago.
I sold the Paramount and Sun in '66--darn!. My then girlfriend (later wife) bought me a used '63 Frejus track bike from a mutual friend around 1969. I just restored that bike this year. Finally replaced the Paramount track bike with a '75 model just a couple of years ago; restored it in Flamboyant Red to resemble my old one.
Pete Rutledge
Woodbridge, VA, USA