Bicycles

Discussion in 'Shopping & Sales' started by Ken Anderson, Feb 25, 2016.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Although I wasn't exactly shopping for one, I'll post this here anyhow because it seems to fit. I was hanging out in Walmart today. I may not have been dressed properly though, because I didn't observe anyone taking pictures of me.

    Walking through the two bicycle aisles, I was struck with the realization that it could have been the late 1950s or 1960s. Gone were the weird bicycles that seemed to have dominated bicycle sales in the past several years. There were only a couple of bicycles with the handlebars that curl inward, and that was about all I saw the last time I looked at bicycles, and most of them has seats that would have been familiar to me fifty years ago.

    Today, the bicycle aisles include Huffys with thick fenders that looked like they could, indeed, hold a child passenger as they did in my day. There were Schwinns that looked very much like the ones I remembered as a child, and even the brands that weren't around then were making bikes that would have been familiar then.
     
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  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I think I had a schwinn as a child. I also remember a killer hill in my neighborhood and there was no way bypassing it. Seldom could you make it all the way up with walking it a little.
     
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  3. Krissttina Isobe

    Krissttina Isobe Veteran Member
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    I had a Schwinn when I was in elementary school that my Uncle bought for me. I liked it and whizzed around on it. It was good exercise. This past Christmas I was at the bike section of Walmart too. Lots of parents were watching their children choose a bikes and watched them practice ride it down the aisles. Guess lots of children love still to get bikes for Christmas.
     
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  4. Mari North

    Mari North Veteran Member
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    Jammies, @Ken Anderson ... gotta wear yer jammies to WalMart or you will get no attention whatsoever! :D

    Wow, you really shocked me with this news! I mean seriously! I stopped riding a bike when I was 18 or so because of that very reason. Those durn new-fangled contraptions that had the rider leaning way front hurt my back terribly. And those new seat... OUCH! I thought the "real" bikes would never come back.

    I have no idea what brand my bike was, but it was "normal" for the mid to late 60s and 70s.... and my goodness did I put a lot of miles on that baby! Hated uphill... who didn't?! But my, could she fly going downhill!
     
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  5. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Same here, @Mari North -- these were bikes that could be ridden sitting straight up in the seat; no need to lean forward like you're in a race all the time. The last time I bought a bike, i could not find one that seemed normal to me, and I hated those curly handlebars. They seem to have cycled around to real bikes again.
     
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  6. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    My 12 yr old grandson got a new bike for his birthday in Dec. and I went with them to pick it out. We went to REI and all the bikes looked fairly normal to me.
     
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  7. Ike Willis

    Ike Willis Supreme Member
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    In my seventh or maybe eighth year, we still lived on Evans street in the south end of town. One of the neighborhood kids got a new bike with a real speedometer on it. Naturally, all us kids just had to see what speed we could achieve on it. The owner agreed to give each of us a turn.
    When my turn came, I mounted the shiny new bike and pedaled like never before, watching the speedometer needle ever so slowly climb. I was so focused on the speedometer that I pedaled right out into an intersection and into the side of a passing car.
    The car screeched to a halt and two men jumped out. "You ok kid? You hurt"? I said I was fine. They looked at the side of their car, and seeing no damage, drove off.
    I can imagine what the driver must have told his wife that evening.
    "There I was, driving home from work when this crazy kid rode his bike right into the side of my car".
    The bike wasn't damaged either. The owner pushed me off it, and never let anyone ride it again.
    Worse yet, the driver of the car worked in the same sash and door plant as my dad, and a few days later, dad knew the whole story. Dad called me "crash" for sometime after.
     
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