Does anyone in the group remember the Mossberg bicycle? I was sitting back this afternoon, thinking about a few of the bikes I'd owned and this one came to mind.
Now my memories are very dim on this one, we're talking about 1973-74, maybe 75. I remember that we got it in at the bicycle shop and couldn't give the bloody thing away, so the owner stripped it and sold me that frameset rather cheaply. It was a maroon/red, used some kind of chrome moly for the frame, and I have a feeling it wasn't lugged. Originally it came equipped with all top of the line Sun Tour/Sugino with Dia Compe centerpulls, and was priced about the same as a Fuji Finest.
I do remember that it was an incredibly stiff frameset with angles steep enough that it was downright twitchy compared to everything else I had in the stable. And it had an incredibly stupid slotted block on the downtube just ahead of the shift levers for an ID badge that you got from Mossberg once you sent in a card - it was their answer to theft protection.
Didn't have it long, I remember building it up with whatever I had laying about in the shop (probably Shimano, definitely tubular wheels), and then sold it off (probably just as a frameset all over again) when I realized I wasn't comfortable with the twitchiness.
Shows you how just about everybody and their brother tried to cash in on the 70's bike boom - only Mossberg came along way too late.
George R. "Syke" Paczolt Montpelier, VA
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