At 1/8/2008 07:07 PM -0600, you wrote:
>I have two observations. First, it's a good thing to be able to spare a
>little admiration for the less glamorous componentry. It makes the
>cycling world larger and more interesting. That is what all four of
>these replies were about, in my opinion. Maybe the hardware was
>lower-end, but it did the job and left behind some good memories,
I was one of the off-list posters. Some low end stuff was great, I'm
always looking out for Huret Sveltos. But the long shifter was
always getting out of adjustment. But ours was from the '70s bike
boom era and on a cheap bike. Likely the ones from the '50s and '60s
were better made.
>To return to the second off-list reply, it was especially good as it
>included a funny anecdote about the list member's wife back in 1972
>trying out a bike equipped with long shifters when she was eight and a
>half months pregnant. Sorry I can't tell you about it. It was
>off-list, you know.
I had posted the story to the list a couple of years back and didn't want to be repititous. But I think it's pretty funny so for the newbies, here goes.
WheelGoods, here in Minneapolis, in '72 started calling themselves "The Bike Fitters", in radio ads. "Come in and get a bike custom fitted to you". What they did was subtract 1" from 1/3 of your height to get the frame size. Jane was 8 -1/2 months pregnant with our youngest, and had gone into false labor. The hospital sent us home and on the way we passed WheelGoods and saw they had a sale on.
Our "Sales Associate" was a youngster of about 18 years who got freaked by Jane's big belly and occasional twinges. He asked her height, (5' 6") and started to show her 21" bikes. She finally decided she liked the looks of a white 5 speed Gitane mixte with its chrome fenders and chain guard. The kid got it down for her, and when she straddled it, the giant shifter poked her right in the gut. He asked how it felt, and she replied "It will probably fit just fine when I'm not pregnant". So he asked "Oh! How tall are you normally?"
BTW Jane' pretty spunky and did manage a few short rides on it before Eli finally came along a couple of weeks later. Our mostly elderly neighbors were aghast. Must not have hurt anything - Eli did a 6 mile ride, without training wheels, a week before his 3rd birthday but didn't learn to drive a car till he was 23.
Mark Stonich;
BikeSmith Design & Fabrication
5349 Elliot Ave S. - Minneapolis. MN 55417
Ph. (612) 824-2372 http://bikesmithdesign.com
http://mnhpva.org