Alan 1985
Basso 1986
Benotto 1985 I don't think I've ever seen a Benotto in person, but they used to run a lot of these ads. Seemed to be classic Italian geometry and craftsmanship but the graphics and colors are kind of boring. I've read that some were made in Mexico and others in Italy. I guess they didn't have a distributer in NCal.
Benotto 1986 Mr. Benotto ensures the quality of all bikes with his name on them... don't know how successful this was as a marketing tool... not very sexy.
Benotto 1987 Now this is the kind of ad that makes a guy want to whip out his charge card!
Bridgestone 1985: Pretty boring copy... must have been before they hired Grant. Funny looking pencil sketch, uninspired photograph (no reflection in the floor).
Carbonframes 1995: OK, this is clever. Greg is riding a bicycle that's labeled as a "Greg Lemond" frame. Most people knew it was built by Carbonframes (later to become Calfee) under contract but in this photo they crop it so it looks like "winning design", while simultaneously getting rid of the Lemond decal. Otherwise people would think it was an ad for Lemond frames.
Centurion 1984: Very slick, I think this ad sold a lot of Centurions.
Fuji 1987: Eye catching but weird. Also, I cannot believe that's Connie Paraskevin.
Fuji 1986: Talk about your unflattering poses... her left leg looks a lot longer than her right one, and her hips look like they're in the wrong place.
Fuso 1985 Now this is a well-crafted advertisement; it appeared in the fan program for the 1985 Coor's Classic. Dave Moulton moves from custom only to this Fuso line of hand crafted stock geometry frames. You get a great photo (bike stands up by itself, wheels reflext off the floor, and those lines make the photo appear to jump off the page), some text about quality and pride, a close-up of the logo, and a dealer list. Before this ad, I used to see "Dave Moulton Custom Frame" ads that were smaller and usually in the black and white section of the magazines. I saw Fuso bikes at lots of criteriums, RAGBRAI, and just out on the road. They are great bikes and their owners love them. This was the most common color scheme but there was at least one other. After Dave got out of the business, he sold the Fuso name to his apprentice who was also very good, but those non-Moulton Fusos don't have quite the same collector value.
FUSO 1989
Motta 1985
Motta 1986
Guerciotti 1985. It was an ad just like this one that steered my toward buying my Ciocc.
Hensley 19??: Another frame maker lost to history.
KHS 1984
KHS 1985
Kirk 1989: This bike came into the scene with a lot of hoopla. Now it's known as the pinnacle of stupid design. I love the lifetime warranty... HA! Life of the company was only a couple months.
Klein 1986 I remember seeing these ads and thinking Klein really had something special going but they were too outrageous for me (and too expensive).
Marinoni 1990
Eddy Merckx 1985
Eddy Merckx 1989
Eddy Merckx 1990
Eddy Merckx 1995
Merckx 1986
Miele 1986
Miele 1987
Miyata 1985
Olmo 1985: If you can't afford to actually sponsor a racing team, you can just have a jersey printed up that looks like you do, hire a guy who looks like he might be a racer, and use that in your advertisement. I don't think I've ever seen an Olmo in real life but they did a fair amount of advertising.
1985 Orbit: Your search - "british bicycle consortium" - did not match any documents.
Peugeot 1987
Puch 1985
Puch 1985 I love this ad.
Ross 1985. Signature.
Ross 1985. Signature
Ross 1986
Sachs 1986
Sachs 1988
Serotta 1985: I love the old ads that show prices.
Shogun 1985: Does this guy look like his top tube's way too short... or WHAT?
Specialized 1985: Hey, that's Gavin Chilcott! I sort of knew him in Santa Rosa.
1999 Suntrack: Here's a bike I'll bet you've never seen before. This came from a Spanish magazine "Ciclismo al Fondo". The Suntrack looks awkward with an aluminum frame and steel fork, and the angles look wrong too.
Trek 1985 Hey look, Triomphe crank!
Univega 1985: This is what you get when you hand over your ad budget to a company that doesn't know anything about bikes. Sex sells, so why take away sexy space for anything as ugly as a bicycle? Interesting how the text fits into the lid of the piano though.
Wakahoota 1990: I have no idea.
I got an e-mail from Matt about this photo: "I remember pining over way too many of them for my own comfort! I especially enjoyed the last one in the series, for Zinn Cycles. Why, you may ask? Because at the time, I was a framebuilder for Lennard in his shop and can remember the day that we came up with that ad. I remember that bike, that rider...seeing it made my head swim with emotions for sure. Just a little "tidbit" on that picture, if you look at the rider, you'll notice that we simply put the model on that bike, it is waaaaay to big for her! If she were to have extended her right leg, she would have been halfway off the saddle." Interesting that an ad promoting custom fit frames would choose a frame that was too big for the rider!
