My memory is very faded from the period 1970-1973, but one of the things I remember is my first "CR"-style vintage bike, actually the first decent ten-speed I ever owned. It was an Aquila, Universal Center-pulls, tipo hubs, the lil square front derailleur (still don't know the difference between "Grand Sport" and "Valentino" on this one), and a steel campi rear derailleur (Record?) Rims were alloy, 1 1/4" clinchers, thats about all I remember. Wish I'd kept it, does this model/make ring a bell to anyone?
I stripped all the parts from it and put them on a blue Peugeot UO-8. Don't remember WHAT happened to the Aquila frame after that (I confess, I was a pot-head then.) The Peugeot? It was stolen from the high-school quad when I was a junior in the fall of 71, the thief used bolt cutters on my security chain in broad daylight, and actually broke one of the jaws, took out a new set of cutter jaws and replaced it, then cut the double-locked chain and rode off....leaving a paper-wrapper and the broken cutter jaw behind. Interestingly, they took the chain and old master combo-lock. Final anecdote on this, the following summer of '72 I was walking barefoot down Los Gatos-Almaden Road and someone on that very Peugeot rode by! When I yelled "hey" they broke into a weak sprint, so I took chase. Would have caught him too, but since I was barefoot the asphalt roadway in the 110-degree heat was too much.
Dale B. Phelps
Los Gatos California
U.S.A.