Okay, here goes; mostly influenced by bikes I saw as a teenager in So Cal, 1968 to 1978:
1. A Paragon, early 1960's Northern California-built road or track bike. Saw a couple of them at Montrose Bike Shop @1968. Gary Fisher and Roland Della Santa both raced on these at different times.
2. Alex Singers. An older man who rode with the North Hollywood Wheelmen had a yellow road bike and pink track bike, both about 55cm. There were also some touring bikes around LA in the early 70's.
3. Rickert in ugly dayglo red from early 1970's
4. Lejeune Champion du Monde. Owned one; I know that I can build a better frame than a Lejeune but it wouldn't be.......a Lejeune. An early example of overkill decal graphics.
5. Merz touring bike from early 1980's. Maybe the American builder who, without outside influence, had the best handle on building load-carrying road bikes. Scary-clean workmanship, frames were straight enough so that Lon Mabon could have hit 'em up for money (sorry, Oregon political joke to go with Oregon bike.)
Anyone who despairs over every scoring an interesting bike for a price they can afford should take heart. A statistic bounces around the bike industry every few years which states that a huge majority of bikes--90+ percent--ever sold in the US are only ridden a very small number of miles--say, fewer than 500--in the whole time that someone owns them. There are a lot of cobweb farms in those garages just waiting to be put in yard sales!
David Feldman Vancouver, WA
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