I was a pretty lazy kid, but definitely not part of the cool club. It might have been a regional thing as much as timing. I lived in Ohio when I was a little kid and everyone had banana seat bikes, then moved to Texas around 1977 and most were riding BMX.
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I see your Schwinn Fastback and raise you a Raleigh Chopper.
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Sounds about right. I moved to Texas about that time and had built a bmx bike for my son. Robinson frame, 20” x 1 1/8 tubular rims, sew up knobby tires, cantilever brakes. Machined a bottom bracket insert with an offset hole so the chain could be adjusted buy rotating the insert. Cantilever brakes could not be moved so the rear wheel had to stay put. People in Texas had never seen skinny tires on a 20” bike. It was light and fast. He won a lot of races.
Dating myself 1st pedal bike had solid tires.
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I had a Western Auto stingray bike with a red-stripe Bendix coaster brake, and I rode the hell out of that bike. I remember it had a thick coating of road paint in the fender from driving the road painter crews mad, ripping through their fresh wet paint. I went from that bike to a Suzuki TS100, that I rode all day during the summer (until it died (the local cycle shop bored it out crooked, and it ate the trust washers on the crankshaft))
To bikes and dirt bikes helping keep us sane, and ‘free range’ as kids…
Memories…
I had T125 twin stinger Suzuki
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Honda XR100 ftw
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The recycle a bike I worked at for a while got a ‘chopper’ style bike in as a donation. I was fascinated by it. BIG wide rear tire, and huge double level seat and ‘ape hanger’ bars. And someone ‘liberated it’ from the shop, it just disappeared one day. No one ever confessed to its POOF. I stopped bringing in as many tools, and leaving some overnight after that. Yikes…
MY brother keeps looking for an Orange Krate bike for some reason. I don’t think he ever had one, but he’s looking for one. Those types of bikes seem hard to come by… (Mom and dad couldn’t tell me what happened to the Western Auto Special. sigh Someone stole the TS100 frame, and it was found out on a trail in the back 40. The police wanted someone to tag it with for 'damages’
Yeah, sure, I’ll claim it with some unknown legal issue with it, sure…
)
EDIT: Oh, I do remember what happened to the Western Auto Special: I was showing off doing wheelies for some young females, and somehow crashed, punching a round hole into my knee! I got home with a shoe full of blood, and a dad turning green, and was rushed to the hospital. After NO X-RAYS, and a really small number of stitches, I was sent home. 40 some years alter, a bone chip in that knee got stuck in the joint somehow and that was my second knee surgery. I guess I tried to block that out for some reason. 
The ‘We should have all died’ comment brought that back from the past. Dad was about to pass out, and mom grabbed both him and I and off we went to the ER…
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Krate. 
If he wants a replica, they are currently available…no Stik Shift, though 'cuz the blowhards at CPSC are no fun.
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It is amazing how absolute crap those bikes are. Stamped steel. Cast parts from pot metal. We should have all died. The Chopper actually tried to kill me several times. Still have the chipped tooth and chin scar from its final attempt.
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But of course he wants the ‘stick’! Hmm…
But I remember falling hard for one of these Super Le Tours (minus that ridiculous looking canvas thing). Instead, I ended up- with a Cannondale holdover. Got a huge discount on it, even for a shop rat.
Free Range Kids…
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Then he’ll have to find an original…which is gonna cost him a pretty penny, most likely a couple grand. 
They are highly coveted.
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The muckitymucks have to ruin everything, right. I was told I couldn’t use my ‘leash-less’ ski poles. Did I toss them? NO!! They are still here, begging me to show up (against my medical team’s fervent wishes) and stick my hand through the molded grips and sail down the hills over and over again with the glee abandon of someone on the far end of being able to make the sport look enticing and enjoyable.
But they will not take my ski poles away! And (if my ‘higher authority’ had approved it years ago) I’d be on the break, LEASH-LESS, waiting on that ‘Perfect Set’, about to challenge the mighty seas as I glide into the curl and shoot out the barrel to surf another day. At least that’s what my reoccurring dreams seem to be fixating on recently. Times a wasting. (I love love my wife sometimes. She keeps telling me I have time to meet ‘a young thing’ who will pop out a dozen kids, and maybe still come and claim my body after I drown at the bottom of a 4 foot wave. 
(She can be so cruel!)) 
My brother should have his Orange Krate! (It’s the DFH 90 Minute Imperial IPA talking now) 
My younger brother received an XR100 as a birthday present when he turned 10 or maybe 11; great starter dirt bike and they were practically indestructible.
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Other solid brands which are now gone and you don’t hear about like: Miyata, Bridgestone, Lotus, Nishiki and Panasonic.
These brands are still around. Bridgestone makes modern road / track bikes. A few conti teams in Asia ride them. Nishiki, Panasonic & Miyata also still produce entry level / around town bikes. I’d maybe buy a modern Bridgestone… but not the others.
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Fair point. Some of the names are still around and some still manufacture. I was thinking USA presence and how those brands used to make very nice high end bicycles and no longer appear to operate in that arena or market.
Back in the 80s, several of the Japanese makers were producing very nice lugged bike using high end steel tubing (Columbus, Tange, etc) and had great paintwork.
I think, could be wrong, that what we’re seeing today with bikes and fitness equipment is just another cycle of boom and bust. There will be a bottom and then another climb to some new peak. Since we all love this stuff it is fun to look back at the history, evaluate the present, and wonder what comes next.
Cheers,
Darth
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I think we are seeing so many buyouts and chapter 11’s and moves to leverage once respected brands.
I think what we are seeing is an elimination of the middle road, and the entrenchment of the higher end stuff. I was shocked to read the Maces announcement that they were shutting more stores, and buried in that was the announcement that they were radically expanding their ‘Bloomingdales like store lines’. Quite an announcement there. Gutting the mall, but enlarging the high end? With all the mergers and acquisitions, and bankruptcies and all of it, I really wonder where we, society, the world will be in 2 years, 4, 8, 10…
I keep hearing that Trek is hitting the wall, and Specialized is going to go full direct, and on and on…
I guess maybe the only bright spot is they are employing more human cashiers at Target?
And I just today found out that the 10mm socket in my impact driver set is actually 9.5mm. AND I had to buy the replacement! Quality, and giving a damn is too expensive today. We are apparently supposed to like what we get.
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