Image: MAD Magazine
Not everyone at CC hates cyclists. Some of us just enjoy laughing at them from time to time.
MAD Outtake: Cycling Through the 70s
– Posted on April 26, 2017
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Curbside Classics Archives
Image: MAD Magazine
Not everyone at CC hates cyclists. Some of us just enjoy laughing at them from time to time.
Ok, you just invited me to share this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut_rJfDoOa8
That’s taking biking madness tot he ultimate level.
Love the track standing gag (the last one).
My favorite is where the jerk kid received “instant karma” via storm grate. ?
The second to last one actually happened to me not too long ago. I had my bike locked up nice and secure, but some jerk stole the wheels off of it. Life imitates art…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3nMnr8ZirI
Portlandia knows of what they speak.
If it wasn’t for cyclists (or people supplying them), CC wouldn’t exist. Look back at your automotive history regarding how many auto pioneers started with bicycles!….:-D….
That being said, this is funny…..:-D…
Also, the “Cycling craze” of the 1880s-’90s led to the movement for good roads, naturally this also helped the automotive industry in it’s infancy. What really gets me is the number of motorcyclists that don’t respect bicyclists (I’ve met them). Hell, the line of evolution is even more obvious there! Personally, I enjoy everything on wheels.
Another motorcyclist here who’s also an avid bicyclist, and just doesn’t get the hate between the two groups.
The popularity of bicycles, and bicycle touring, in the 19th century can be surprising to those who may see cycling as a more recent phenomenon.
There are at least two published touring memoirs from that time that make interesting reading – one by the Pennell’s, an American couple who cycled through parts of England and Italy in the 1880’s, and another by Thomas Stevens, an Englishman who actually cycled around the world on a ‘penny farthing’ at roughly the same time.
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/414-9781772120424-canterbury-pilgrimage-an-italian-pilgrimage
https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Bicycle-Classics-American/dp/0811726533
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stevens_(cyclist)
Cycling was also very important regular transportation in pre automobile cities. When I was little, I had heard of the “horse and buggy” days. Realizing that I lived in a late 19th century urban neighborhood, I started to wonder: “where in hell did everyone keep all of the horses?!?” My grandfather explained: “regular working class people here (Pittsburgh) didn’t HAVE horses they walked, took the trolley or a bicycle” Aha! There’s not much room for a horse in a 16″ wide rowhouse! ?
Another classic from earlier times, “Across Asia on a Bicycle”,
by Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis
Sachtleben resides here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31111/31111-pdf.pdf
Yup. For me, and I suspect more than a few of you, two sides of the same coin.
Beautiful machinery -art- and freedom.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bicycles/curbside-classic-1969-raleigh-rodeo-my-first-new-set-of-wheels-direct-from-england/
ETA despite it being a high rise bike, I was definitely not the kid with the storm drain!
Similar taste in bikes, so probably of a similar age…. mine even had the suicide shifter like yours. ?
…my ’71 Stingray (not my actual bike, but mine looked just like it):
I had a 1970ish Sears Spyder, Essentially the mail-order knock off of the Stingray. Today, it’s probably not worth what the Schwinns go for, but I’d love to have one today for sheer nostalgia! Later on in life I had a Panasonic 27″ touring. When anyone asked if it was a good bike, my response was that it had great bass.?
I wish I still had this Stingray. I gave it to the neighbor kid when the 3 speed “transmission” got stuck in 3rd gear at 1500 miles and I had outgrown it anyway. I then got a ’77 Varsity in the same color blue (I still have that bike). Recently I talked to the ‘kid’ I gave it to (now in his mid-late forties). He said he put it in a shed at his Mom’s place when he himself outgrew it (he repaired the gearbox/hub and put like another 1000 miles on it!). His Mom had the shed torn down and the bike was scrapped along with the shed. Both of us are sick about that! Those Stingrays are worth some coin now.
Another Stingray fan. I went from an early single speed Stingray (1966) to a Pea Picker, the green version of the Krate bikes with the 5 speed stick shift. It was the first vehicle I totaled.
I now have a yellow Stingray from the 70s in my basement. My kids learned to ride on it but it got parked when the original 30 year old rear tire blew. I ought to clean it up and sell it.
May I even ask how you totaled your Pea Picker? Ouch.
Lots of the neighborhood kids had the Stingrays. I thought the green one was the Apple Krate, but that may’ve been a candy-apple-red color. My next door neighbor on the other side from the kid I gave my blue ‘ray to when I got to old for it had the yellow one, Lemon Peeler IIRC. The guy on the other side of him had the Orange Krate. I wanted a blue one like the one pictured above, so I settled for the ‘lesser’ 3 speed stick version, as at the time, there was no “Blueberry Krate” (blueberries are purple anyway, according to George Carlin ;o). I’m kinda glad I had the simpler Stingray, as I didn’t have to fight with the shock absorbers and a derailleur, and my bike handled better (at least to me) without that little wheel (for the ‘chopper effect’) and the drum brakes up front. Sometimes less really is more. ;o)
Haha, I was racing a friend down the street one day when I was about 13. As I looked back to see how far ahead I was I failed to notice that there was a car parked in front of the Bordners’ house. The Bordners never, ever parked a car in the street (everyone had 2 car width driveways) but that day they were getting some carpet or something installed. It was a 1971 Firebird and I ran into the back of that thing at full speed, so what, 15-20 mph? The spring on the fork poked a hole in the fiberglass panel between the taillights, the front tire wedged under the bumper and I went flying up the back window, which I think I scratched with the front teeth I broke off. The front suspension/fork was good and bent. I was just glad it wasn’t a station wagon or van I hit. I replaced it with this one. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/my-former-curbside-classic-1972-schwinn-collegate-sport-moving-on/
Showing off one day as an early teen, I went over the handlebars on my Stingray trying to jump a small ravine at a construction site. Yeah, I didn’t make it. I still have the scar on my left hand. But the bike survived just fine.
I read your CC for which you provided a link. Thanks… great read. Ironically, your odometer stopped at 703 on your Collegiate. I had stopped riding my Varsity at 704 miles. But my speedometer still works (barely – it makes a lot of noise now). My stepson fixed up that bike as a trainer, and the bike has like 1187 (IIRC)… may be over 1200 by now. He has since moved away, and onto a tri-bike, a cross-tour, and another road bike (all modern and nice), but still wants to do a full tear down and restore of the old Varsity like Jim Grey may do someday to your Collegiate. He genuinely likes riding it, as do I from time to time. Normally nowadays, I ride a ’91 Miyata Quick-Cross that still looks and rides great, especially after my stepson tuned it up for me. It looks like this one pictured below….
Classic, wordless works of Sergio Aragonés. I used to love his small comics (“marginals”), drawn in the margins of MAD.
+1?!
My kids grew up reading my stack of old MAD magazines and books. For my son with dyslexia, they gave him something he wanted to try and read – hey, it worked! Consequently neither of them take life too seriously. 🙂
Kids should be encouraged to read MAD! Back in the “day” Teachers and other killjoys looked down on MAD. When I was a kid I started out with the comics page and comic books. it was my MOTHER!? who introduced me to MAD and later National Lampoon. Humor is a good “subversive” way to teach kids about life!
Yes ! he certainly had a way with drawings .
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-Nate
I do not hate cyclists per se, only those who are arrogantly inconsiderate towards other path users. I jog quite a bit and must keep a constant look for idiots who think they are on a Tour de France stage and would not divert an inch from their course even though they are aware of me and that the path is a dual purpose one (i.e., for cyclists AND joggers). Being hit by 160-200 pounds at 20 or even 30 MPH results in broken bones most times. As a rule, I find that this type of cyclist is the one who constantly and bitterly criticizes car drivers for being inconsiderate.
No, I don’t wish them all dead:)
To clarify, Paul recently had to ban a commenter who professed murderous hate for cyclists. Repeatedly.
Thanks TT for not wishing ALL of us bicyclists dead. I hope I’m not one the idiots though. I might be in trouble!
Like I’ve said, I have no issues with people who are being reasonable. So far I did not have any cause to resort into violence:)
And yes, I can see some cyclists may get annoyed with people who wander aimlessly into the middle of the path, totally oblivious to the world…
When I’m driving my car, I hate pedestrians.
When I’m walking, I hate car drivers.
When I’m bicycling, I hate everyone!
Ha, j/k. 😉
My beef is grown adults who ride on sidewalks (in areas where it’s unnecessary for their safety.) There’s idiotic Bicyclists, Motorcyclists and of course drivers, In fact yesterday I “learned” that Pittsburgh has the worst drivers, as if I needed the Post Gazette to tell me that!?
The new thing is the logarithmic increase in idiotic pedestrians. Even after the introduction of the Walkman, It wasn’t as bad as it is now. Today not only is half the pedestrians deaf from headphones, they are staring at their phones as they are walking. Not only are they a danger to them selves while crossing the street, They are a “danger” to other pedestrians!
As a daily cyclist, people riding on sidewalks is also one of my pet peeves, particularly in the city, and as a pedestrian I’ve taken to saying in as neutral tone of voice as possible ‘Please don’t ride on the sidewalk’.
I’ll confess to occasionally riding on an empty sidewalk for half a block to get where I’m going, or possibly longer next to a dangerous but unavoidable stretch of road. But even in those situations I’ve made it a rule for myself that I dismount and walk if there is even a single pedestrian on the path. It’s really not an unfair hardship to walk on a sidewalk.
That said, cycling is so much fun. The explosion in bike popularity, and in safe bike routes and dedicated greenways, is to me one of the best developments in urban life over the past decade or so.
When there are a range of practical transportation choices – private car, car share, train, bus, bike, walking – for the things you do on a daily basis, and when the city is increasingly designed to make those options viable, it makes for a significant improvement in convenience and in overall quality of life. Not to mention in one’s finances too.
I feel the need to walk on eggshells with this topic, but I agree. I’ve actually not personally had bad run ins with any cyclists while in my in car ever but walking or jogging and even riding a bike(in plain clothes, how silly of me) down nature paths I’ve gotten berated and cursed and buzzed by at 30mph by mere inches numerous times by the Tour de France rejects. When did “on your right” go to a courtesy warning that they’ll be passing me to a command for me to move right into the dirt so they could proceed straight through me? Obnoxious.
And no, I certainly don’t wish any harm to cyclists either. A reckless riding ticket issued to the few offenders giving the conveyance a bad name yes. Just as I’d expect behind the wheel of a motor vehicle exhibiting that behavior.
I had that issue of MAD when I was a kid in the ’70’s – classic. As an adult I navigate my trusty old Norco through downtown Toronto every day except when it rains or snows.
Old beater-bicycles are the official vehicle of downtown Toronto. Personally I’m amazed at how otherwise law-abiding people think it’s okay to mess with parked bikes, leaving trash jammed in the spokes, stripping parts etc
A**holes like that are probably not so law abiding in other aspects of their lives!