Rich Pinder wrote (but I <snip> liberally)"
( the matching handle bar bag was made my my sister, in something like 1970 - from a kit company called 'FrostLine' - anyone recall them ? Off topic, but they offered GREAT kit projects for cycling and other outdoor sports. <snip> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Rich, thanks for bringing that up, because I'll argue that Frostline kits were a part of our touring scene Way Back Then, and you're unleashed the glow of memory for me. Back then, ca. 1970, Susan and I were a Starving Grad Student Couple in R.I, where we helped start the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen. We wanted badly to tour, to bike camp, to explore New England. To stay in the Hostel on the Hill across from Chuck Harris's place in New Hampshire. My bike for this was a Dawes Double Blue, with a 48 front to which I'd bolted a 28 FW cog as a granny, and a close ratio rear. Shifted with a remarkable Shimano Lark derailleur. Susan had her high-end but beaten-down Atala. We carried the bikes upside down on a home-made rack built on the carcass of a ski-rack and mounted on our '64 Valiant. Frostline was a great resource, because there just wasn't much good gear for bikes back then. Frostline assembled all the obscure piece-parts, from high-zoot rip-stop nylon to special fasteners, provided good instructions, and sold it for less than I could buy the stuff. I learned to sew on a Frostline sleeeping bag kit, when Susan informed me that she wasn't doing this stuff by herself. Frostlne was in the same spirit as ordering TA rings from REW Reynolds in England, or lusting for the CycloPedia goodies.
And somehow, with cobbled-together gear we toured and had a wonderful time. In New England, in Oregon, and a great ride from Cleveland OH to Atlanta Ga, 840 mi. in 10.5 days with full camping gear. Eating grapes from our handlebar bags while riding. Susan on her renovated OTB (see Sheldon's site) with Lyotard Berthets, and I don't remember what I rode.
A decade later, Bill McCready introduced the Santana tandem, and it book-ended that era. For the first time (at least so I will argue), one could buy a tandem, assemble it, and ride w/o worries. We discontinued the "broken spoke" awards at tandem rallies, annually given for the worst mechanical failures, since things no longer failed so frequently. Mostly wheels and freewheels. We joked that the tandem community had shifted from "pioneers" who could do anything, and thrived on it, to "farmers" who were great productive people, rock solid, but not adventurers in the same sense.
And, I think that this was true in the bike scene, too, as equipent improved, shops stocked more stuff, and riding became more mainstream. I think I still have my Frostline kit polarguard vest. Like everything we did, I modified it. It has a great big red reflective triangle sewn to its back. With a plus sign, since I wanted to think of myself as a rather quick slow-moving vehicle. Or, in Brave New World terms, maybe a Delta (low caste), but at least a high-ranking Delta.
May all your roads be smooth, and you never be stranded on the road.
harvey sachs
McLean Va USA