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Fred Rednor wrote about suddenly rising prices around 1970 or thereabouts... ...it suddenly seemed to change. Was this due to labor unrest in Italy that caused prices to rise? Or did Campagnolo suddenly realize that there was tremendous cachet related to all their parts?
I think many factors, and while I was still pretty young back then, I was bitten by the quality bike bug early. If my memory serves, do not forget about wage and price controls (1971-1973) due to the high inflation, with them came an additional emergency 10% tariff on (almost) all imported goods!
I remember the imported bikes almost went up 10% in price overnight! Including the bikes already in the store. Being a polite but questioning young lad, I asked why, I did not get a polite answer.
In looking back, other factors were concurent, for example with the bike boom beginning, higher prices did not curb demand... when the extra duty came off prices did not drop either...did not need a university professor 10 years later to tell me that prices are sticky and do not want to fall.
John Jorgensen
Torrance Ca