Vintage Bicycle Advertisements; good, bad. ugly...

[Brucey]

flared jeans were never any good for riding a bike in.... Black and Decker drills like that are often still going, and that car radio looks like a real antique. 1973 seems like a very long time ago.

[rjb]

And dont forget Currys.

[Mick F]

Black and Decker drills like that are often still going ...................

Got one!

Interesting story .............
My dad and my sister appeared on the Generation Game in 1973 - 2nd series I think.
Dad and sister won, and sister won the quiz and did the conveyor belt thing. One of the prizes was a "modern" Black+Decker drill, so sister's husband gave me his old one - the one pictured above.

This is a still from the DVD that the BBC produced from their archives. My sister has the original.
You can see the prizes, and also the modern B+D drill.

[francovendee]

Black and Decker drills like that are often still going ...................

Got one!

Interesting story .............
My dad and my sister appeared on the Generation Game in 1973 - 2nd series I think.
Dad and sister won, and sister won the quiz and did the conveyor belt thing. One of the prizes was a "modern" Black+Decker drill, so sister's husband gave me his old one - the one pictured above.

This is a still from the DVD that the BBC produced from their archives. My sister has the original.
You can see the prizes, and also the modern B+D drill.Goodbye.jpg

All metal body, earth wire so not double insulated. I had mine for years but it developed a lot of play in the bearings. Not surprising really. I had a range of add on tools (orbital sander, Drill stand etc,) and it had a lot of use. Tools were made to last.

[Brucey]

...All metal body, earth wire so not double insulated. I had mine for years but it developed a lot of play in the bearings. Not surprising really. I had a range of add on tools (orbital sander, Drill stand etc,) and it had a lot of use.

yes that was the flaw with the 'one motor, lots of attachments' scheme. I've seen several such drills with worn bearings. Oddly enough the B&D two speed gear control is one of those (possibly accidental) good bits of design that goes unnoticed and (usually) unappreciated; the nature of the control means that it is unlikely to be knocked or used whilst the drill is still in motion, and thus the mechanism inside is less likely to be damaged. By contrast the control is easier to use on (say) a Bosch drill, and is more likely to be moved whilst the drill is in motion, or forced in some way; the plastic selector fork in a Bosch drill is a commonly broken part. The B&D design also gives a reliable indication of which gear is selected, which is kind of neat.

cheers

[Brucey]

another short journey on the street of broken dreams; "pass 'em all in a flash of chrome" is the aspiration sold to kids but the bike sadly weighs a ton to start with and has heavy adornments that basically serve no function. As usual if you buy the posh model you get even more of this crap nailed on. The advertising copywriter knew no shame, lines like 'the most beautiful bike built' are interspersed with meaningless tripe such as 'the new safety styled cantilever frame gives extra zip... makes the miles fly by' .

Yeah, 'fly by' in a sea of pain, wondering why your bike is two or three times heavier than it needs to be. One of these bikes is liable to be distinctly improved -as a bike- when parts start falling off ....

Its almost a conspiracy to promote car buying; in one fell swoop you inculcate the 'more is more' car-buying ethos/values and give kids a heap of junk to ride that is likely put them off cycling for ever...

[JakobW]

But it comes with a free comic book!

[Sid Aluminium]

Bickerton television advertisement with nicely edited quick shots showing the bike's place in the scheme of things and suggesting its place in the viewer's life. Additionally, this certainly sets benchmarks in dialog and background music:

https://youtu.be/shxHFCi673A

[Sid Aluminium]

Dahon television ad from the same era. Unlike Bickerton, Dahon didn't trust their viewers' understanding of what they were observing, so the ad is narrated and takes 3x the time.

https://youtu.be/9Da26WLmVUo

[Brucey]

festival of Britain, 1951.

[Brucey]

another brand lost to the mists of time. But the sentiment is still valid; townies need to get out into the countryside.

[Brucey]

in the ad below the [expensive, imported into the US] Humber has the now classic diamond frame, whereas most of the other machines have older frame designs. Around that time the pace of change in bicycle design was fairly swift. The kalamazoo parcel carrier is a good example of the sort of gadget that seems like a good idea at the time, but folded or not, are you really going ride around with it when you are not using it?

[Brucey]

giant arm, or miniature bike?

[JohnW]

completely baffled by this one....

Don't think about it Brucey

[Chris Jeggo]

Black and Decker drills like that are often still going ...................

Got one!

Me too, and it's still going!