Paul & list,
I'm sure that there were well-sponsored amateur racers who could afford to throw away last season's equipment and replace everything for the next year. But when I started racing in the mid 70s, most of us bought our own gear, and with rare exception treated our bike (usually singular) and components with respect. Not many of us had neurosurgeons for fathers who could buy us the best and most expensive stuff. We worked in bike shops for pocket change and a 10-20% discount on tires and parts. I'll never forget the first time I ordered something from Nashbar because I could get it for less than my discounted price at the shop! It sure pissed off Dave, the owner, because he was working hard to make a living in a very non-boutique shop in Urbana, Illinois. No one I knew discarded perfectly good equipment at the end of the season. We were just glad to be able to get to the race, because gasoline was starting to hover around a dollar per gallon!! Oh well,
Galen Poole
Jackson, MS
>A few years ago I remember talking to a chap from the Netherlands, who was
>working in a bike store in my home town (Kingston, Ontario), who remembers
>stripping NR and SR parts off bikes while he was a mechanic in Holland and
>simply throwing them into large bins in the back of the shop. This used to
>happen at the end of every race season as riders would upgrade to the new
>year's parts. He remembers that in most cases there was nothing wrong with
>them. Made me weep when he told me that - oh that I had a time machine!!!
>
> Paul Williams,
> Ottawa, ON, Canada