What bike brands were available BITD in your town?

[dirttorpedo]

Over my time here I've noticed that there are some strong geographic patterns with respect to bike and component brands. For example I've lived most of my adult life on the West Coast of Canada and our local market was dominated by a number of local brands of varying economic heft, other Canadian brands, some large US & International brands along with a handful of local builders. Before I'd started visiting this site I'd never heard of Pace, Dawes, Roberts, etc. and I had no idea that Orange had been around as long as it has as I didn't hear about it until Steve Peat's international profile grew. Sometimes I'd see a brand advertised in Mountain Bike Action or Mountain Biking - like Muddy Fox - so I learned about them that way, but never saw one in the flesh. Other times you'd see the occasional example of bike that was imported by someone - for me that was Early Yeti's and Fat Chance bikes.

I thought it would be interesting for people to post the brands that were sold locally. Here is what was available in Vancouver back in the 80's and 90's (as best as I recall)

Bike Manufacturers:
Rocky Mountain
Ritchey
Marin
Specialized
Trek
Fisher
Raleigh (Canada)
Peugeot (Canada)
Miele
Norco
Nishiki
Kuwahara (Appollo)
Bridgestone
Kona
Fiori
Bianchi
Brodie
DeKerf
KHS
Toad Bikes (of Offroad Toad fame)
Ken Legge
Diamondback
Centurion
Steve Bauer
GT
Cannondale
Klein (in the 90's)
BRC
Asama
Miyata
Minelli
Proflex

Components:
Shimano
Suntour
Pauls
Syncros
Race Face
Manitou
Girvin
AMP
Rock Shock
Marzocchi
Halston
RST
Cook Bros.
Ringle
Kooka
Nuke Proof
Kore
Control Tech
Answer
Tioga
Club Roost
TransX

 

[raidan73]

Nothing so fancy where I lived (Wellington in Somerset). We had a Raleigh dealer and that was pretty much your lot

A 7 mile bus ride to Ralph Colman Cycles in Taunton opened up a lot more options including:

Kona
Marin
Cannondale
Trek
Raleigh
Emmelle (had to have something for every price point!)
Shogun
Orange
Peugeot
GT
Diamondback
Breezer

Plus a few others I'm sure I've forgotten. We didn't really stock many of the real top end brands (parts yes but not complete bikes) although we did have a Klein Attitude hung up that we used to drool over. Also had the odd Pace, Bromwich and Orbit plus the odd special order from Yates and Lloyd pass through the doors.

 

[drcarlos]

Lucky round here that we had several of the ubiquitous Raleigh dealers in local towns but the nearest small town had two independents who stocked.

Specialised
Cannondale
Trek
Klein
Muddyfox
Claudbutler
Holdsworth
Marin
Dawes
GT
Plus a few others I can't remember

Carl

 

[feetabix]

Things were so different pre internet. Could you imagine in 1991 being able to buy any bike, from anywhere in the world, having not to have even bothered lifting your continental quilt from your Spider-man pj's!.......my home town bike shop basically was a Raleigh dealership. My two wheeled love at first sight moment was with the 1991 trek range in Mike Vaughans in kenilworth......trek/specialized essentially. All a bit mainstream now, but not then......apart from the odd spot from the passenger seat of my dad's Sierra the only brush with bike porn was at the races or by planning a mid ride break at Julie's cycles in Leicester (giant/gt/kona), or at A&M in tamworth (pace/Klein/kona/Spesh).......oh, and a guy used to ride a purple explosive on slicks past the garage I worked at in wolvey........looked really cool!.....

 

[Bryncrug72]

Steve Thornhill in Selly Oak

Cannondale
Marin
Kona
Orange

Can't remember anything else I've had too many bangs on the head ! :facepalm:

 

[Antstark]

I was lucky, I lived within spitting distance of sshokwave in Nottingham. Purveyor of boutique exotica (Goat, Bradbury mani, boulder, funk etc). It was 1994 before I found out you could buy a bike for under 3k

 

[feetabix]

My kona still has a sshockwave sticker on it ant!.....

 

[secret_squirrel]

my local was Total Fitness in Swindon which was Specialized and Cannondale - and maybe one other that I forget.

had to make regular visits to John's Bikes in Bath to look the exotica. then the odd visit up the A419 to Noah's Ark to look at Ozone or Bigfoot from memory. Hopefully someone will refresh it!

had to cross the whole county to Warminster find my local orange dealer.

 

[M-Power]

Living in London and being in the trade we could get anything. A lot of the staff in different stores knew each other so collectively we were always up to speed with new goodies. Happy days.

But I never saw a Zinn or Mountain Goat on the UK trails only at bike shows.

 

[Pyro Tim]

I lived in Wellingborough, Northants, and the local shop sold Emmelle and DiamondBack, there was another that did Raleigh IIRC. Shops in Northampton did Ridgeback, Marin, GT, Kona, Cannondale, Orange etc