I'm reposting this as my answer ran together with the quote in the first try. Hopefully this one will work better. Jerry Moos said: I would agree with Peter that until the 80's or maybe late 70's there were extremely few top quality high volume American road bikes except Schwinn Paramount. There were always a few custom builders around, and more of them beginning in the 70's, but it was hard to walk into a shop and buy a top American made bike.
Well, perhaps except the Masi Gran Criterium which was an American made bike. I agree that it might have been hard to walk into a shop and find a nice American made road bike in the 70s though there were several builders making them then. I suspect most were custom or only available in a small geographical area. Lou Deeter, Orlando FL