Anybody want to share their memories on the store brands? What Tom Cuthbertsen called trashmos? Those department or hardware store bikes that fought with Schwinn for market share in the 60's? Anybody know who actually made them?
Here's what I recall:
Sears: Before the Free Spirit, they sold some some really slick looking tank bikes and a sweet looking fake stingray.
JC Higgins: Penney's store brand? All the ones I saw or rode were ****. Ugly and they broke and hurt kids.
Western Flyer: Western Auto. They had English racers. Maybe a 10 spd.
AMF, Huffy, Columbia, Murray: Sold everywhere. Columbia started making or marketing good bikes in the late 70's. Saw one on RAGBRAI. My 'rents had Huffy english racers. I won a Huffy Scout in a contest and used it as a spare to my Raleigh.
Royce Union: Where were these from and who sold them?
Vista: Only found these in one local HW store in 1973. Pretty, but looked like a deluxe Huffy. I think US made. Same grupo as a Schwinn Varsity.
Excel Dynamic: This was a cheap gear changer set made in Carol Stream IL in 1977 by minimum wage students, housewives and stoners-lots of stoners. The front was ****, but the boss put a rear one on my Raleigh Record, where it stayed for many years. It was a cheap copy of a Simplex. Saw these on Murrays. Production soon shifted o-seas.
Any more trashmo memories to share?
A
Here's what I recall:
Sears: Before the Free Spirit, they sold some some really slick looking tank bikes and a sweet looking fake stingray.
JC Higgins: Penney's store brand? All the ones I saw or rode were ****. Ugly and they broke and hurt kids.
Western Flyer: Western Auto. They had English racers. Maybe a 10 spd.
AMF, Huffy, Columbia, Murray: Sold everywhere. Columbia started making or marketing good bikes in the late 70's. Saw one on RAGBRAI. My 'rents had Huffy english racers. I won a Huffy Scout in a contest and used it as a spare to my Raleigh.
Royce Union: Where were these from and who sold them?
Vista: Only found these in one local HW store in 1973. Pretty, but looked like a deluxe Huffy. I think US made. Same grupo as a Schwinn Varsity.
Excel Dynamic: This was a cheap gear changer set made in Carol Stream IL in 1977 by minimum wage students, housewives and stoners-lots of stoners. The front was ****, but the boss put a rear one on my Raleigh Record, where it stayed for many years. It was a cheap copy of a Simplex. Saw these on Murrays. Production soon shifted o-seas.
Any more trashmo memories to share?
A
