A Little Bike History

Bike Sources and Supply

The Touring Cyclist has been in business since 1973. That isn’t long enough to have seen the start of the very earliest technologies that make bicycles what they are today, such as the pneumatic tire and the roller-link chain. But even just 30 years in the business has given us a chance to work with many major developments that determined what the modern bicycle looks like, where it comes from and how it functions. Bicycles have become more sophisticated, more complicated, more functional and more varied in the last quarter century than probably in the entire previous history of the sport. Join us in this short trip down memory lane, and maybe you’ll learn a bit about the sport of cycling along the way.

Where Bikes Come From

Our story begins during the OPEC oil embargo and gas crunch in ‘73. The long lines at gas stations made us think “why not start a bicycle store?” We knew that in Europe the bicycle was a primary means of transportation, so why not here? So we opened a store in St. Louis, Missouri, bought some bicycles, and began to sell them. Of course, the gas crunch eventually went away and bicycles have not replaced cars in this country, but we did well enough to survive and expand anyway.

During those first few years bicycles were in short supply. The only mass producer of bike shop quality bicycles in the United States was Schwinn, and their models were sold out for years in advance. The next option was to import bicycles from Europe. Some of the brands were already known and appreciated in this country, such as Raleigh and Peugeot. We liked these bikes and had great success selling them, but even they were in short supply. Some other European brands were not so well known, and we came to find out why. The European manufacturers were smart people, and we eventually realized that some of the companies were taking the rejects from their factories, putting them in bicycle boxes and shipping them to the States. The poor quality of these bicycles brought tears to our eyes when we had to build them.

At that time there was essentially one type of bike for sale, what we now call a “road bike”, back then simply called a “10 speed”. Every one had narrow tires, dropped handlebars, and a narrow seat. Regardless of who came into the store their choice of models and styles were limited to this type. Most people buying bikes wanted something to ride around their neighborhood, and perhaps they would ride for a few hours at a time on an occasional weekend. They wanted a bike that was light, worked well, didn’t get flat tires, and most of all was comfortable. What they got instead was a replica of the bikes used in European road racing (think Tour de France), where speed and efficiency beat out comfort every time. This difference between what our customers actually wanted in a bike and what we (and every other bike shop) could sell led to the collapse of the first “bike boom”, which had started in 1973 and ended 2 or 3 years later.

The European bike brands had a huge but temporary spike in popularity during those years of the first boom. But their inability to meet the demand, their bikes that didn’t quite match what customers wanted, and spotty quality left an opening from someone else to take their place, and by the late 1970s this was happening at full speed. This was the second big change we’ve experienced: the rise of the Japanese bike brands.

The Japanese entry into the market eventually spelled doom for the European manufacturers. Japanese bike quality was excellent, the Japanese manufacturers were willing to try new things, and they paid more attention to what American riders were asking for. The Japanese were eventually replaced by manufacturers in Taiwan and China because of lower wages and better exchange rates in those countries, but the Japanese set the standard for quality, adaptability, and innovation that has been followed in the bike business ever since. These changes caused or at least allowed the rest to follow: easier to use, more dependable bikes with indexed shifting and integrated component groups; advanced materials such as carbon fiber at affordable prices; a broad range of bike types, such as mountain bikes and hybrids, for a broad range of different uses; bikes that seem to get lighter, more durable, and yet less expensive every year.

Today almost all bike shop quality bicycles sold in the US are manufactured in China and Taiwan. A few companies, including Cannondale and Trek, still make bikes in this country. (Cannondale makes their entire line here, while Trek builds about half their models in the US.) But even these companies import almost all the component parts to build their bikes from the Far East. Some bikes still come from Japan and Europe, but only in very small quantities. In this regard the bicycle industry has followed the lead of almost all American manufacturing industries, where design and marketing is done here, but actual production is done in Asia. It is unfortunate to lose those local jobs and skills, but the tradeoff has been to have bicycles with great features and consistently good quality at prices that everyone can afford.

Next > (The Bicycle and the Car)