The decline of European manufacturing and the rise of the BSO

[bikeworkshop]

We got to discussing how during the 70s-80s bike depression Peugeot sold millions of very basic race-style bikes, albeit with beautiful graphic design, and how Raleigh as a brand produced more and more low quality product in order to keep the factories open and the workers employed.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads...pro-yesterday-52cm.450160/page-4#post-3667628

And then along came the mtb.

Easy gears
Casual riding position
Brakes that worked
Large soft tyres
The dream of riding anywhere
away from tarmac and traffic.

Brands you'd never heard of!

Peugeot and Raleigh offered some nice kit, but they also knocked out thousands of low quality items.

It amazes me that it was worthwhile building bikes like the Mustang
(Credit to @mattbrown ) and the Amazon in the UK, but I suspect the alternative was redundancies.

MTBs benefited from a brand with a US association, californian even.
Decades of history was a disadvantage - it implied you were stuck in the old ways.
Something your grandad might have owned!

European racing snobbery had probably set the scene for this.

But of course these new brands were moving production to the far East
They didn't have acres of factories or workers who did the job their dads and grandad had done before them.

Did this bring about the BSO? Or had the Europeans done it already?

 

[LondonClassic]

I would say the Euros had already raced and found the bottom before the US MTB brands were in UK high streets. Its pretty sad how UK manufacturing follows the same pattern across industries; ancient tooling and premises, rigid mindsets, shareholder dividends and lack of investment.

But it was probably marketing that killed Peugeot and Raleigh. As you note, late to the party on the MTB and once there they find their name is as sexy as stones ginger wine. If Raleigh had bought Trek or Marin early doors they might have stood a chance but only if they'd have been flexible enough to ditch the way they'd done things for the previous century. I don't think they were capable of doing that. Raleigh were a company that bought a ton of hi ten tubing and a million Sturmey Archer hubs and then thought 'lets make bikes from this, everybody loves us, piece of piss.'

 

[doctor-bond]

“Too early to tell….”

 

[bikeworkshop]

So what's the original BSO?
I've put up the Mustang, but I don't really believe it.

 

[brocklanders023]

I'd argue against the Mustang or the lower Peugeots (Lazer?) being BSO's. They were bikes built to a budget which acted as a gateway into our great sport for children up and down the country. They were heavy and basic but pretty robust.
Still remember my first ever go on an MTB (ATB?), a mate's Mustang with 15 gears, and I was hooked straight away. Coming from a BMX my mind was blown by the uphill ability in the local park when stuck in the lowest gear. Far from being a BSO it was actually the halo bike in our village!

Real BSO's are the cheap tat that followed, the type with brakes so cheap they bent rather than stop you and metal that snaps on first contact with rough terrain because it's so soft. The kit churned out to look like an MTB but that's it.

 

[brocklanders023]

As for European manufacturing, it's coming back to some extent. Cotic, Pace and others are switching production from The Far East due to not being able to rely on getting the products when they need them.

 

[highlandsflyer]

I remember a bike we got from a Russian submarine in the early seventies. It seemed to be made of cheese.

 

[Gtpulse]

I’d have been almost happy with a Mustang but I got a Marauder, though I’d argue even with their BMX bottom bracket they still weren’t quite a BSO. It had canti brakes and SIS shifters and everything actually worked well on it. They lasted a very long time as well.

I’d argue those bikes that looked like an MTB but were fitted with very flexible caliper brakes are the earliest BSOs. After that it was Universals, Apollos and the stuff you’d get in the Freemans catalogue.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Thatg stuff still got the British Kite mark too!

With deep, flexy calipers on chrome rims spongy cables and plastic levers!

If you replaced the levers and cables, hard braking would cause the front brake to bend forward so the pads started rubbing on the tyre.
Then you'd stop!

 

[Totoro]

Still remember being a young kid and we all met up on our BMX bikes on the street when one of the older lads rocked up on his Mustang which he called an ATB. Most of us had never heard of a mountain bike and he was the cool kid on the block until others started to catch on. Crazy to believe we could envy a Mustang so much but the rest of us did at least he did let us all have a go.

Not sure if it was the start of the BSO but in our area it sure was the death of the BMX.