Ride Lugged

I’ve often wondered how the early 80s, known primarily for bad hair, bad clothing, bad music (with some exceptions) and bad drugs, could be responsible for the pinnacle of the production bicycle. Never before or since has the market supported and excepted a bicycle with such beauty, simplicity and usefulness, not to mention a bicycle with such supreme longevity that many are still being ridden in thier inital format. Add all this to the fact that early 80s bikes were affordable, and we are left in a state of dull shock. What happened? When did bike makers start making bikes that were next to useless and disposable in a matter of a few years, if not a single season. I know a few cyclocrossers and roadies who would insist on a new bike every season. Unfortunately these “old” bikes are more or less relegated to the scrap heap, because the racer believes, maybe rightly, that they need every last advantage to win, which means a new bike with new lighter bits every season. Ironically, on a side note, the french have been making 15lbs bikes for 40 years, many of which are still ridden hundreds of miles every year. 15 lbs is still the benchmark for a light bike, so even with all this ti and carbon disposable crap, no one has bettered the French on the subject of light bikes that stay ridable through time.

Case in point, the Huret Jubilee rear mech. Its gobs lighter than even the lightest, most tuned Campy Record Carbon. And it looks better. What gives? You’d think with computers and all that they could make a lighter mech, but no. Whats that say? I dont have an answer yet…
As you might be able to asertain, I ramble so bear with me. I wrote a bunch of notes on this article, but I havent even looked at them yet. Ok, I looked. They make some sense too. Who knew.

Ok the first reason is an economic one. The yen was low and the dollar high in the early 80s, so Japanese craftsmanship was cheap, which led to affordable jems like this Miyata. Shimano had gotten over copying Campy stuff, but that was ok cause thier early 80s designs were still nice and had a good finish. Suntour was making the best shifting rear mechs out there, with their slant parallelogram rear mech, and Sugino was (and still does) making strong, light cranks that were dirt cheap. All this meant that technology was reaching a point where it was still ascetically pleasing but more functional and affordable than it had ever been. Technology like hollow forged cranks, index shifting, and all that stuff we think of today as being new, racer technology, had been around on french touring bikes for 35 years or more, but only with the Japanese mastery of this technology was it made availible to a wider audience. Ironically the french makers who had been pioneers were now being supersceded by high quality overseas copycats, who were not only copying old ideas, but making drastic inroads at improvement.

This will be continued and made more convoluted later, its lunch time. -James