Bicycle Makers Hitting the Streets Again

Remember when bicycles were ridden on streets?

For the last several years, mountain bikes have ruled the bicycling world. On any weekend, hordes of fat-tire fans could be seen streaming down woodland paths and across meadows--riding anywhere but on pavement.

But one look around Interbike--the largest bicycle trade show in the country, taking place this weekend in Anaheim--and you can see that the bike industry believes road bikes are coming back into style.

At least partly because age is overtaking the mountain bike set.

“We are making accommodation for the older rider,” says Kelly Burr of the Marin bicycle company, which until recently made only mountain bikes. “They’ll be crossing over, wanting something they can take out for a spin to run errands, go visiting.”

At the vast Interbike, which takes up most of the Anaheim Convention Center, numerous new street cruisers are on display, many with retro designs harking back to the Schwinn you had as a kid in the ‘50s or ‘60s. And for the 1990s, environmental- and exercise-conscious commuter, there are several new folding bikes made to be easily carried aboard buses, trains and even planes--the newest ones compact enough to be toted as carry-on baggage.

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Jeff Linder knows his way around carry-on baggage. He’s a pilot for United Airlines and a committed “roadie,” bike slang for a road bike fan. “It was frustrating taking a full-sized bike as baggage on a flight,” says Linder, who often heads for such bicycling paradises as Australia and New Zealand.

“Keeping a bus full of crew waiting at the airport while I tried to find out where they put my bike just wasn’t acceptable.”

For passengers, the situation was even worse--airlines routinely charge $50 and more each way to carry a bike.

Linder found and later became an investor in Bike Friday, an Oregon-based company that makes folding bikes that fit into suitcases that go through regular check-in. He’s at Interbike to show their latest product, Air Friday, a high-tech model that fits into a carry-on bag and weighs only 21 pounds.

The company’s custom-fit bikes have gotten rave reviews from the bike press--they’re the Rolls Royces of the folding models, not only in rideability but also price. Air Friday retails for $2,360 and up. Other company models start at $895 but Linder says its upcoming Metro line will be priced under $600.

The Dahon folding bike company was founded in the mid-1970s when David Hon, a physicist at Hughes Aircraft, was looking for a bike he could easily ride to a bus stop and then carry aboard. At Interbike, the company is showing its new Express, a folder that at 27 pounds is aimed at short-term commuters. It retails for $599 and with 20” wheels is legal carry-on for Metro buses and rail lines.

Cruisers, which acount for many of the new models at the show, are the industry’s attempt to catch a new wave of riders in the wake of a downturn in mountain bike popularity (sales peaked in 1993). They’re for casual riders who don’t care about super-lightweight materials, racing-style components and click-on (clipless) pedals.

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GT Bicycles, which made the Superbike used by the U.S. team at the Olympics, is debuting its Rapid Transit line featuring an old-fashioned chain guard. “You could ride this in nice pants,” says Todd Toth of GT. Prices start at $550.

Even Litespeed, a company that makes titanium road models than can cost as much as $7,000, is getting more casual. The company is showing its new Appalachian model, which features extra gears to make hill climbing easier. Being that it’s titanium, the price is still steep--$2,300.

And finally there is Schwinn, which had gotten a staid reputation but has been striving for a comeback. The company is showing something truly new, a belt drive that does away with the chain, metal gears and all the attendant grease. The price for these cruisers, when they hit the market next year, will start at about $350.

“They’re coffee shop bikes,” said spokesman Cache Mundy, “for kids who don’t want to take the $800 bike out to class.”