Robert wrote:
<< Mossberg ....(snip)...was actually the first carbon fiber bike to hit the market back in 1974. And while this is generally accepted to be the first bicycle of its type available for sale to the public at large >>
Thinking back to that era, I saw the Mossberg ads but never a real bike. Act ually I don't even remember seeing those bikes at the NY or Fla bike shows e ither although they must have been on display! Being always the skeptic, I w onder how many of those actually made it onto the asphalt.
Do any of us have a Mossberg carbon bike? Seen one in use with your very own eyes?
Dale Brown Greensboro, North Carolina USA
-----Original Message----- From: R.S. Broderick <rsb000@hotmail.com> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Cc: watts.gary@gmail.com Sent: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 10:16 pm Subject: RE: [CR]History of Alan-carbon
Gary,
First off, I would concur with Chuck's caveat regarding PR-Department written corporate histories.
With respect to U.S. offerings, Mossberg (...yes, the same Mossberg that is perhaps better known for its rifles - both Mossberg and Browning jumped into
the "bike biz" during the 1970's boom) was actually the first carbon fiber bike to hit the market back in 1974. And while this is generally accepted to be the first bicycle of its type available for sale to the public at large, several other one-off or prototype examples actually preceded it (...Grafalloy Composite and A-C Cycleworks specifically, although I am not sure that either of these efforts made it into full scale production). As for the Graftek, it was initially only available to Cool Gear / Exxon team members (...John Howard, and brothers Wayne and Dale Stetina, among others) who promptly set about racking up many a win throughout the 1976 racing season using their new "wunder-bike" (...including the 1976 National Road Championship - a feat repeated in 1977). The Graftek G-1 frameset itself was not made available to the general public until August of 1976, a little over two years after the carbon fiber Mossberg had first hit the market. That said, I think that one would be accurate in stating that the Graftek G-1 was the first "commercially successful" carbon fiber bicycle to be sold stateside (...although I suppose that one could quibble over that word "successful", if only with respect to the total sales numbers achieved by this ultra-expensive for its time niche-market bike) inasmuch as the Mossberg offering was a sales flop by all accounts, due in no small part to the fact that the Snyder Manufacturing plant where it was built was destroyed by fire in 1975 and bicycle production thereafter was never resumed.
Robert "Exxon Graftek G-1 owner" Broderick
...the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota
Sioux Falls, USA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------
>From: "Gary Watts" <watts.gary@gmail.com>
>To: "Classic Rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]History of Alan-carbon
>Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:00:43 -0700
>
>Mentioned is that Alan introduced the first commercial carbon frame to the
>public. Wasn't Graphtek the first as in mid 1970's?
>
>Gary Watts
>Vancouver, Washington
>USA
>
>
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