I am both
delighted and amused that Bike Boom-era ten-speeds are en vogue, at least with certain (mostly young and urban) segments
of the population.
Go to
Bushwick, Brooklyn or any other enclave of the young and self-consciously hip
(and bohemian poor) and you’ll find flocks of vinage Fujis, packs of old
Peugeots, ranks of stalwart Raleighs and gaggles of Gitanes and other classic
names promenading through plazas or chained to railings.
One reason
is, of course, that such bikes are—as long as they haven’t been crashed,
submerged in a deluge or otherwise abused—as good now as they were then. While nobody would try to race those bikes,
most of which had mild steel frames and cottered cranks, they offer rides that
are reasonably quick yet comfortable.
The frames geometry, while maligned by racers and other
performance-oriented riders, make the bikes versatile in ways that few
contemporary bikes are. That is the
reason why so many have been converted to single- and fixed-gear urban
cruisers.
What that
means, of course, is that such bikes sell—especially in New York and other
urban areas—for far more than they did a few years ago. Even so, it’s often less expensive to buy
such a bike, convert it and add racks, baskets or whatever else one likes, than
it is to buy a new “urban” or “Dutch” (really, some marketer’s idea of “Dutch”)
bike.
However, I
can recall a time when Bike-Boom era ten-speeds could be had for a song, or
even less. As I recall, that time
commenced around the mid-‘80’s, when mountain bikes became the machines of
choice for the few (at least here in the US) bicycle commuters and “ride around
the park every other Sunday” cyclists of the time. Most people who bought ten-speeds in the
‘70’s and early ‘80’s rode them only for a short time before relegating them to
garages, basements, barns and other “out of sight, out of mind” sites. Eventually, they’d be sold in garage or
estate sales, or even given away. Some
people used them in trade-ins for mountain (or, later, hybrid) bikes, so old
ten-speeds could be had for very little money even from bike shops.
For
years—about a decade and a half, in fact—I used such bikes for commuters and
“beaters”. When I could, I rode them “as
is”—of course, after inflating the tires, lubing the chains and such. Usually, I changed the saddle and one or two
other parts, and added a rear rack and fenders if the bike didn’t already have
them. As parts (usually wheels) broke
down or wore out, I replaced them, sometimes with parts I had on hand or
friendly shops allowed me to scavenge.
My ability to build wheels came in handy, as I could get discontinued
models of rims cheaply and re-use the hubs that came with the bike, or get
inexpensive replacements.
From the
mid-‘80’s to the mid-‘90’s, bike theft was (I believe) even more rampant than
it is now. That was a further incentive
to use such bikes, as losing one wasn’t as much of a financial (or emotional)
blow as losing one of my better bikes would have been. On average, I would say that I would ride one
of those bikes about a year before losing it to a thief.
None of my
photographs included any with any of those bikes in it. However, I can recall, fairly accurately,
each of those bikes and when I rode it.
I will list them below: The year
or decade in parentheses is the time, as best as I could determine, the bike
was manufactured. The year(s) on the
right side indicate when I used the bikes.
Follis Tour
de France (1960’s). 1985-87. Stolen.
Raleigh
Record (1960’s or early 1970’s). 1987-89. Stolen.
Jeunet
(1960’s or early 1970’s). 1989-90. Crashed.
Peugeot U-09 (1978). 1990. Stolen.
Motobecane
Mirage (1960’s-early 1970's). 1990-92. Crashed.
Windsor (model
unknown, 1970’s). 1995-97. Loaned it to
someone who later bought it.
Atala (model
unknown, 1960’s). 1997-2001. Cracked after landing from a jump.
Motobecane
Nobly (1970’s). 2001-2002. Was too big; sold it.
