...and in the early '80s they made aerodynamic tubed models with Dura Ace AX components.
Jamie Swan - Northport, N.Y. http://www.centerportcycles.com (mapped)
On May 30, 2005, at 8:19 PM, Joe Bender-Zanoni wrote:
> I'll expand a bit. Vista was a brand of an organization with a name
> like
> National Bicycle Dealers of America or something like that. Certain
> distributors (Service Cycle in the NYC area) sold the bikes, both
> Columbia
> made and Japanese. In earlier days- say 1975, you could get amazing
> deals as
> a dealer if you bought a whole shipping container of the Japanese bikes
> early in the season. The problem was they were branded Vista and you
> couldn't fill in the stock in case you ordered the wrong sizes. They
> were
> well made and allowed you to clobber your competitors on price if you
> chose.
> If I'm not mistaken similar to that Vista Elite, with alloy rims and
> decent
> components could be sold for $160! That compared very well with a $200
> Fuji.
>
> Joe Bender-Zanoni
> Little Falls, NJ
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <oroboyz@aol.com>
> To: <dcwilson3@yahoo.com>; <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 5:54 PM
> Subject: [CR]Re: 1984 Vista Elite bike
>
>
>> << Ebay has a 1984 Vista Elite bike with Araya 631 tubing and Shimano
>> 600 drive train. Anyone ever hear of a
>> Vista? ...........
>>
> http://ebay.com/
> ViewItem&category=98084&item=7160185574&rd=1
>>>>
>>
>> "Vista" was the brand used by Columbia bikes ior their "Bike shop"
>> clients (as contrasted to the reast of their product line which was
>> sold to department stores.) They has clunky welded bikes and a few
>> models imported from Japan. This eBay bike is one of the latter......
>>
>> Dale Brown
>> Greensboro, NC USA