12/17
Museum Night Update
Hey, thanks to everyone who came to our ‘90’s themed museum night. You folks were really generous, and we’ll be handing $300 and a whole pile of food over to PAWS this week.
12/17
Hey, thanks to everyone who came to our ‘90’s themed museum night. You folks were really generous, and we’ll be handing $300 and a whole pile of food over to PAWS this week.
Our friend Don Rauf has a present for anyone who loves old bikes.
Don wrote a fantastic new book about everything Schwinn. The stories are great, the photos and old advertisements look terrific.
The book has a pretty comprehensive history of the Schwinn family and company. There are some famous bikes like the one from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure or Eddie Munster’s monster Sting Ray. There are crowd favorite balloon-tire cruisers from the ‘50’s, Sting-Ray and Krate bikes from the ‘60’s and the road bike collection from the ‘70’s and 80’s.
Want a personal connection to this book? Come in to the shop, see and touch one of the dozen or so bikes whose pictures grace the pages! Yep, there’s a lot of our little museum in this book, even our Black Phantom bar stool.
American Bicycle Manufacturing was a brand that made beautiful, cutting-edge mountain bikes in St. Cloud, Minnesota from the early ‘80’s through the mid ‘90’s.
ABM was well known in the mountain bike world for coming up with novel ideas and then figuring out how to produce them. They manufactured polished and anodized aluminum bike frames at a time when painted steel was the norm. Their Montanaous model was one of the first modern-era bikes to have adjustable frame angles (change the head angle by changing the headset placement). The modern bike shop parts procurement nightmare, the replaceable derailleur hanger? American was really the first sizable company to incorporate the feature into every model. For a trade show in the early ‘90’s, ABM built a mountain bike frame out of super-light Beryllium tubing.
The 2 pound mountain bike frame never made it into real production as they really couldn’t produce frames out of the dangerously toxic metal for less than $25,000 each.
False starts and misteps aside, American Bicycle Manufacturing was ahead of the curve.
American was the original sponsor of the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival in nearby Hayward, Wisconson. The festival today is one of the biggest and oldest off-road races in the world, drawing over 2500 participants into the woods each year.
Unfortunately, American Bicycle Manufacturing did not survive the mountain bike boom. As a builder for other manufacturers as well as for their own brand, American sometimes lost market share and intellectual property to their own customers. In 1993, a deal to produce tandems for Specialized fell through, leaving American with over 200 tandem frames they couldn’t sell.
This particular American M-16 features all of 1990’s best mountain bike bits. It has the Shimano Deore XT component group with 21 speed indexed shifting, the new 2-finger XT brake levers, round (and oval Biopace) black anodized chainrings, Shimano SPD pedals and black cantilever brakes… And a Hite Rite!
Do you have a dropper seatpost on your new mountain bike? This bike has the original.
A Breeze & Angel Hite Rite seat adjuster is clamped around the Suntour XC seatpost. Just flip the quick release lever, let your weight push the saddle down and then re-tighten the quick release when you had the saddle at the right height. Just be carefull when you want the seat to go back up, the spring shoots the saddle back up pretty quickly…
Does anyone make a decent racing bike out of steel anymore?
You bet.
Ritchey makes a beautiful steel road bike out of their Logic tubing, and it’s just right. Not too cheap (and heavy), not too pretty (so you’d be afraid to really ride it), not too expensive. The Road Logic frame with headset and carbon fork will set you back about $1250. That’s just the right range for replacing an old road frame that’s damaged or doesn’t fit right , and you don’t have to resort to buying something sketchy and used. A Road Logic all built up with new parts will typically run between $2000 and $4500, and it will be the sweetest ride, with handling and comfort that is just right.
Wow! Fantastic! A Giant carbon road bike from 1989!
1989 was a great year to be a cyclist (or a gear junkie). Ski-binding style pedals and the shoes that work with them had become a regular thing. Indexed shifting, gel saddles, synthetic-fabric cycling clothing and of course those new mountain bikes were all over the place.
In 1989, top-end bicycles were being produced with space-age materials. Titanium was around if you looked hard enough and aluminum was everywhere. Carbon fiber had been available for a couple of years, pioneered by TVT and Vitus of France, Colnago and Kestrel.
The problem was, those bikes were really expensive by 1989 standards. Walk into a bike shop back then and you’d find entry-level bikes at $300 and a Kestrel 4000 or a C Record equipped Colnago fetching around $1800!
1989 was the year that carbon fiber road bikes became available to the masses. Specialized had the Allez Epic, Trek made the 2100 and Giant made the Cadex. Our friend Fred Williams walked into Mercer Island cycles in 1989 and rolled out with this Giant. He got quite a deal.
For around $1200, Fred got a pretty light and cool looking road bike with a Shimano 105 component group, a Vetta gel saddle, Look pedals and an Avocet 40 bike computer.
The carbon construction method for these early bikes was pretty straight forward. Cut, mold and cure carbon fabric into round tubes.
Cut the tubing into the correct lengths and glue them in a tube-and-socket fashion into aluminum lugs (that you probably already had ready to go for your all-aluminum bikes). Clean and sand the excess glue, add a clear coat finish (by the way, you don’t want to cover the carbon with colored paint, people have to see the carbon weave) and you’re done!
We think that the price range (and the relative scarcity) of early carbon bikes is really what led to three decades of skepticism regarding the material. “Steel is real” and “Do you need carbon?” became article titles in the bicycle magazines not because of some epidemic of failing carbon products but because of jealousy. Call it a need to bolster the damaged egos that resulted when $800 steel Bridgestones got ignored at the club ride the moment a $1500 carbon bike showed up.
One more thing regarding carbon fiber and then we’ll be done. Since some folks love anecdotal evidence to support their beliefs, we’ll give them a new anecdote: This Giant Cadex is over 25 years and 30,000 miles old. It’s still looks and rides great. That steel Bridgestone? The top tube rusted through from sweat after the one winter it was used on the indoor trainer…
Check out this wonderful twin-downtube design from Colnago, the Bi-titan. The Bititan was sometimes labeled like this one here as the “Titanio”.
A big innovator throughout the decades, Ernesto Colnago really hit his stride in the early 1990′s. New materials meant designs that wouldn’t work in steel could be revisited. This titanium marvel features triangulated twin tubes running to the bottom bracket shell, and a diamond-shaped titanium top tube. With the straight-bladed fork legs and edgy component choices, this Titanio is quite a break from the 100 years of traditional steel frame design that preceded it, and definitely different from the organic carbon shapes we see today.
It’s too bad that we’ll probably never see racing bikes designed like this again. Wait, what? Why, if this bike is so cool, will we never see one like it again?
Because the UCI stinks.
The UCI, or Union Cycliste Internationale, is the governing body for the sport of bike racing. In the late 1990′s, in order to exert more control over cycling (while ignoring the rampant blood doping in the pro peloton), the UCI created rules that restricted how a racing bike could be made. Today, manufacturers like Colnago even have to submit their designs for inspection and an expensive UCI certification.
Innovative ideas like the twin downtubes on this Titanio run afoul of the UCI’s rules. Traditional front frame triangles were mandated . No solid panels or airfoil shapes. No split tubes. No suspension on road bikes. Wheels have to be the same size. Heck, even neat little aero bars like these Cinelli Spinaccis were outlawed for use in mass-start events (maybe that was a good idea).
The Spinergy Rev-X wheels on this bike have an unusual status in bicycle history. They were one of the earliest bicycle wheels (besides discs) made of carbon fiber.
They were a commercial success, and were followed into the marketplace by countless carbon-fiber wheel manufacturers. The unusual part is that while they were marketed as more aerodynamic and lighter weight than wire spoked wheels, they were actually neither. Few people bought these for their best attributes. While they looked flimsy and harsh riding, the Rev-X’s were actually pretty robust (as long as you didn’t crash) and rode with a great springy feel.
We hope you have enjoyed this tasty bit of eye-candy from Ernesto Colnago, the old UCI and the component companies of the 1990′s.
The mid ’90′s was an interesting time to be a racing bike.
You could be built up in the traditional ways, just like countless racing bikes before you. Assembled with shiny metal parts like your predecessors, but with rounded edges and aerodynamic shapes. You got unusual finishes, paint jobs that suggested you had the power of flight, patterns that tricked people into believing you made of different materials than you actually were. Just a decade previous you could have counted on the the same saddles, pedals or handlebars as your neighbors. In the 1990′s a racing bike never knew what to expect.
This Wilier Triestina is from 1994. The frame was probably hanging on a hook as it was getting its colored-chrome finish just wondering what to expect.
What it got was a Campagnolo Record component group, just like hundreds of its ancestors. The difference was that these Campagnolo parts had no hard edges or corners, just smoothed and rounded aerodynamic shapes. The brakes didn’t actually stop the bike but at least the model was called the “Delta” which is usually used in scientific terms to at least suggest a change in speed.
The fork was made from steel (going the traditional route) but the fork crown was shaped like something made from carbon fiber. It seemed like old-fashioned materials in new-fangled shapes was the route the bike was taking.
An aerodynamic water bottle in an aluminum cage.
Campagnolo Shamal aluminum rims polished like old touring wheels but with a futuristic deep aerodynamic shape.
Then came the saddle. A throwback to the 1960′s, a hard leather Brooks seat.
Next up was a full-length Silca frame pump (not one of those new mini-pumps).
Would toe clips and straps be another retro choice? Nope.
Look ski-binding style pedals in white and red.
Some of the ’90′s era racing bikes out there probably needed therapy.
We have always wanted a Slingshot bike in the museum collection. Despite the somewhat silly appearance, these bikes are an important step in the evolution of modern bicycles and the design (and the company building them) is robust enough to still be available today.
Born in Grand Rapids Michigan in the early 1980′s, Slingshot was a hit with more open-minded bike riders and bicycle reviewers from sporting magazines.
The Slingshot design is all about giving the rider extra comfort and control without isolating them from the riding experience or creating inefficiency. The frames flex at the fiberglass “Dogbone” pivot and the coil spring at the top end of the steel cable helps return any lost energy in a controlled manner.
In the early ’90′s, this suspension system was a refreshing alternative to completely rigid bikes (especially stiffer-is-better aluminum offerings from companies like Klein and Cannondale). It was also better than a lot of the first-generation full-suspension attempts. Ironically, unlike Softride Beam bikes and some other longer-travel designs (like the Trek 9000), “Slingshots” would not catapult you out of the saddle when the suspension snapped back from a bump.
Twenty-five years later, surviving Slingshot models are usually the more common off-road variety. This is a road version built for Triathlons.
Like modern tri-bikes, this one has a goofy-looking handlebar designed to support the forearms as well as providing control grips for operating the brakes and the shifters. This Scott triathlon bar was a valiant attempt to connect all of the contact points with one continuous piece of aluminum. It worked poorly and detracted from the rest of the bike. Since they were trying to make the bar light-weight and still connect all of the dots, the bar flexed quite a bit and made the steering sloppy. The brakes and the shifting were affected by this bar too. The extra-long cables required to snake around the bar bends reduced shifting precision, introduced extra friction to the cables and flex to the brakes.
GripShift shifters make their first chronological appearance in our museum on this Slingshot. These are the second version that the company produced, and the first real commercial success. This version didn’t require mechanics to drill holes in the handlebars in order to install the shifters, the twisting action was a bit more precise than with the original product, and the shifters worked with a variety of bicycle and drivetrain styles.
Like a lot of tri-bikes in the ’90′s, this one was built with smaller than standard 650c wheels. The smaller wheels reduced stand over height and (hypothetically) increased aerodynamics. The smaller wheels were a bust when it came to performance, but they are a real plus for our museum bike here. The bike looks comically small in relation to other bikes on our walls, but with a 58cm top tube it was actually intended for a rider around six feet tall.
Carrying liquids without a container just makes a mess.
Visit our selection of waterbottles, thermoses and mugs to find just the right container for all your bike riding needs.
We have regular squeezy plastic bottles from Specialized and Camelbak. A super-duper Classic Cycle bottle made of recycleable plastic that has a leak-proof heart-valve like top. Bottles that unscrew at both ends for easy cleaning from Clean Bottle. Insulated bottles for hot summer days from Polar. Aluminum or stainless steel bottles from Kleen Kanteen and Stanley, as well as your favorite Stanley thermoses.
By the way, all of our plastic bottles are B.P.A. free (actually, they always have been. It’s the crappy bottles that your company gave away at that “team building” picnic that had the bad chemical makeup).
Not interested in bottle-shaped containers? Take a look at our backpack-style hydration packs.
Way back in the Aughts, the world got caught up in a chopper fad. The success of reality television shows American Chopper, Monster Garage (with West Coast Choppers owner Jesse James), and Biker Build-Off on the Discovery Channel fueled a fascination with chopper motorcycles. Jay Leno had one built for him, so did Billy Joel. The New York Yankees had one built. Lance Armstrong rode one (that evoked the lines of his Trek Madone and his aero helmet). Movie star Sandra Bullock married a chopper builder. The bicycle world took notice.
Bicycles that evoke images of a motorcycle are not new, nor is the drawn-out chopper style. Beach cruisers that look like Harleys, kids’ bikes with twist grips that make engine revving sounds, and fake gas tanks on balloon-tire bikes have been around for years. BMX (the dirt racing that your nephew does every weekend) stands for Bicycle Moto-Cross, and is a pedal-powered version of the motorsport.
Bicycles and motorcycles have been intertwined since the beginning. Early motorcycles were just bicycles with small gas engines welded onto them. Thirty-five years after the first chopper fad hit the bicycle world (the film Easy Rider started that one), we had another.
Schwinn, Giant, Phat Cycles, GT, Electra, and Specialized all had them, but the Rain City Chopper is our favorite bike from this recent chopper boom.
Redline pays homage to their Seattle roots with the name, and the design is perfect. A meaty 4″ wide tire in back for powering away from a stop. Disc brakes to keep all of your horsepower under control. The belt drive makes for nearly silent operation (unlike motorized choppers), and the dual crown fork smoothly transitions into burly chrome handlebars. Take a look at the pin-striping on the tank, fender, and belt guard. Great details all around.