Transport of delight

Press, 7 December 1978, Page 23

Transport of delight

the balance on a pedigree bike.” Retailers say that selling a £2OO bike is now nothing out of the ordinary. “We sold a £l2O machine to a company director in his mid-thirties,” said the manager of one specialist firm. “But he was back within a week to exchange it for a £250 model. He said he rode it at weekends.

“You can easily spend £4OO-£5OO on a bicycle. Above that you really have to search for something special.” The £6OO superbike has a frame of manganesemolybdenum tubing, a titanium pedal axle and is capable of around 60 m.p.h. with the right feet on the pedals.

Gears, wheels and other accessories are worth over £400; and essentials like pump, lights, and saddlebag are extra.

“Anyone who doesn’t own a bicycle today, with fuel the price it is. needs his head examined,” said Richard Ballantine, author of the highly successful “Richard’s Bicycle Book”; and more and more people seem to agree with him.

In Britain more than IM bikes have been bought in the last 12 months and in America more than 60M people are now regularly taking to their cycles.

And that means that demand for bikes—and particularly those in the top price range — has never been so great.

In Britain, Raleigh, the

world’s largest cycle makers, expect to sell more than one million machines this year and there will still be long waiting lists; and the specialist makers, too, are reporting a deluge of orders. For instance. W. Houldsworth, of London, one of the world’s top cycle builders, have had desperate calls from American retailers. “One morning we had three calls before the shop had even opened,” said a spokesman. “The first one wanted 10,000 bikes. “We have to tell customers that the machines in the window are all we have.” says the director of a major retailing chain. "We try to build our own machines from imported components but these are as rare as gold-dust.

“Price is no drawback. People are just desperate to get bikes. But a five-month wait for an ordinary model is nothing unusual. If you want a hand-built lightweight. you could have to wait a year.”