Now, I might not know much about culture...but I do remember, about 1966, a load of Motobecanes showing up at a new car dealer in Houston, more-or-less downtown, on S. Main. Lugless, as I recall. I predicted the innoculation would not take: who ever heard of them 700c wheels? It didn't. Then, in 1968, I bought my first parts bike, a paint-before-disassembly "Astra" lugless, in R.I. Reminded of it because I'm now trying to decide what to do with a 1950s town bike, Motobecane semi-lugless, with 3-speed plunger, alloy fenders (rear pierced every couple of inches with a grommet for skirt-protection strings?), a generous patina on the original paint and stripes, and rigidly fossilized tyres. Yeah, Washington's been French-friendly for a long time, at least for bicycles.
harvey "Are Leg-lights and Wonderlights really culture?" sachs mcLean va.
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"P.C. Kohler" wrote:
>>
>> As Fred said there was sure loads of "French bike culture" around
>> Washington, DC when no one else knew a thing about Singer or Herse. I still
>> don't. French bikes around around here c.1965-80 was spelled two ways:
>>
>> Peugeot or Gitane
>
>
(snip)
>> So again it's a matter of the tail wagging the dog... we've been riding and
>> loving French bikes for a long time, at least around here. Just not the
>> fancy Herse and Singers or whatevers. Didn't even know there was a French
>> bike "culture". But we had mudguards. Little Sobitez generators. And
>> headlamps on the front mudguards with the amber-tinted bulbs. I guess that
>> IS French bike culture. We just knew a little secret: you could get more
>> bike for the buck from Peugeot in the 1970s than any company out there. No
>> wonder the PX-10 and her siblings just don't seem to make the grade snob
>> appeal-wise. We distain what we could almost afford when we were 17!
>
>
Perfectly stated Peter! Out here in Southern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s a ten speed was as you said, a Peugeot or Gitane. A "fancy" bike would have been an Allegro or a Mondia ;-)
And yeah Fred, all the nice touring bikes were part of the American Youth Hostel thing going on back then.
Chuck Schmidt ooops... 10 of 4... my bad...
South Pasadena, Southern California