Joe Bender-Zanoni snipped and wrote:
Gary says he can assemble a 10-speed in 15 minutes. I don't believe he can do this without cutting corners. I'm pretty fast and it still takes me an average of 50 minutes per bike
Way back 30 years ago, A Peugeot UO8 could be a fast assemble, even including cutting off the heavy poly shrink bag. That is as long as the wheels only needed touching up and the chainrings were not warped.
Raleighs could be anything, from 40 minutes to 3 hours, depending on what was right and or wrong, more frames had to be realigned to get a decent chainline than I care to remember, this was pervasive up to the Competition.
Nishiki's were pretty predictable, lots to do like installing all the reflectors and brackets, which meant a headset adjustment, but the stuff worked. All the Japanese bikes behaved quite similar.
One had to develop a system to do it fast and correctly, oil and grease at the ready, and placing the parts in a common layout on the bench.
All the bikes got a test ride, and the secret to pleasing a customer who had been test riding bikes from other shops, put it in about a 66 to 70 " gear, they would fall in love.
Considering what the profit margin on any of those were, it was accessories that paid the bills, margins were notoriously small on bikes.
John Jorgensen
Torrance Ca