Hi Jan,
I did a quick count from the same sales logs begining in 1969 - 1978 the first and last year of recorded sales through Cupertino Bike Shop. They sold 120 Alex Singer bicycles. It seems that all bikes were sold built and as framesets in racer and touring models. The peak year seems to be 1975. Jan, if you would like me to do a year by model report like the Cinelli version let me know. I would be happy to do the work for you and the CR Archives.
Regards, Guy Apple Sunnyvale CA USA
-----Original Message-----
>From: Jan Heine <heine94@earthlink.net>
>Sent: May 9, 2007 8:38 PM
>To: oroboyz@aol.com, cinelliguy@earthlink.net, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: Re: [CR]Re: Cinelli Production
>
>At 9:04 PM -0400 5/9/07, oroboyz@aol.com wrote:
>> <<
>> Anyway I was thinking 10 percent?>>
>>
>>
>>Wow, that would be amazing for a little bike shop 1/2 way round the
>>world, in a broader cultural climate that could care less about
>>bicycles, and Cinelli being so amazingly world-famous...
>
>Cupertino was small, but they moved a lot of bikes. Ernest Csuka
>estimates that they and a few other North American shops sold almost
>350 Singers in the 1970s, which is more than 10% of the total
>production from 1939-2007!* All that in a few bike boom years. (Of
>course, those were frames only, which took much less time to make
>than the bikes Singer sold in France.)
>
>Another question is how famous Cinelli really was around the world...
>I know in Germany, where I grew up, they were considered the Holy
>Grail by many, and the same applies here in the U.S., of course. But
>in France, everybody knows Colnago, but Cinelli is relatively
>unknown. What about Italy, Britain, etc.?
>
>Note: I am not saying that Cinelli is not world-famous, but simply
>asking the question.
>
>Jan Heine
>Editor
>Bicycle Quarterly
>140 Lakeside Ave #C
>Seattle WA 98122
>www.bikequarterly.com
>
>* The current total of Singer production is 3382. There were some
>"off-the-books" bikes during the war, so the actual number probably
>is about 100-150 higher.