When I went to lunch today on the campus of U.C. Davis I was passed by a st udent riding a red 1970's Masi grand criterium. Yes, this bike was being us ed for his campus beater/commuter bike. As general manager of the on campus bike shop (the Bike Barn) I have been pleased to observe a noticable incre ase in the number of lugged steel on-topic bikes that have been coming into my shop for repairs. Most recently I have worked on a early 60's Olmo in g old, a late sixties yellow Paramount, a couple of PX 10's both blue and whi te ones, a Davidson, an Albert Eisentraut(47cm built with aero tubing, gold and painted by JB), a 67cm Shadowfax (built by John Padgett of Saturn fame ),and a chrome Stella. At the Barn (yes, my building is a 1910 dairy barn) we perform more than 10,000 repairs annually, mostly on BSO's (bicycle shap ed objects) from those evil, unmentionable box stores. However, I have noti ced a nice increase in well-made Japanese road bikes in for repairs. It is refreshing to see young people embracing lugged steel and seeing a re surgence in fixie bikes. All of my employees (about 14) are sudents between the ages of 18 and 23 and all have road bikes. One rides a 1970 Colnago th at is mostly original, another has a 70's Gazelle (lugged 531) converted to a fixie. Most of my collectable bikes are stored here at the shop and alwa ys generate much conversation among my staff and visitors. I enjoy educatin g them on the virtues of hand-made lugged steel bikes. My best guess is the students are showing up with bikes that their parents gave them, that is, their parents old bikes that have been laying around in the garage for year s. Most of the incoming freshmen have parents in their late 40's to early 5 0's, so it would make sense that the bikes the students are riding today we re purchased new or used by their parents back in the early 70's to early 8 0's.
Robert St.Cyr Davis, Ca. USA _________________________________________________________________ Kick back and relax with hot games and cool activities at the Messenger Caf é. http://www.cafemessenger.com?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_SeptWLtagline