{"id":210477,"date":"2025-10-19T07:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T07:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210477\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T07:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T07:04:16","slug":"50-years-of-cycling-kit-stuff-we-actually-wore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/210477\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years of Cycling Kit | Stuff We Actually Wore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking Back With Ed: Road cycling kit has changed a lot in the last 50 years \u2013 as Ed Hood reminds us what passed for \u201cde rigueur\u201d gear in shoes, jerseys, shorts, helmets, glasses and more. How many of these did you actually wear?<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

In January we lost our friend and colleague Ed Hood, two years after his devastating stroke. We will never forget Ed and his knowledge, connections in the cycling world, his writing style and love for the sport. Ed wrote thousands of stunning articles for PEZ<\/a>, so we will pay homage the \u2018King of the Blackberry\u2019 with re-runs of his great work.<\/p>\n

And a big thank you to everyone who contributed to Ed\u2019s \u2018Go Fund Me\u2019. It made a big difference to his last two years.<\/p>\n

You can read the PEZ-Crew\u2019s memories of Ed Hood HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ed
Ed and his gang back in the day<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Recently someone posted some Scottish race results from 1973 on social media; and there I was in some 25 mile time trial on the Kippen Flats course at Stirling. Then it struck me, 1973 \u2013 50 years ago, that\u2019s half a century. How did that happen?<\/p>\n

\"coppi\"
Pure class<\/p>\n

I thought it might be good to look at what those 50 years have meant to our sport, let\u2019s start with what a rider wears, we\u2019ll deal with the bicycles in a piece yet to come:<\/p>\n

Shoes: Always black leather, no logos, it was later in the 70\u2019s before we got Colnago shamrocks but we did have Adidas stripes \u2013 and it was much later before we got the orange, pink, yellow jobs we do now. Shoe plates \u2013 \u2018cleats\u2019 our North American friends call them were nailed on, they fitted into the rear pedal plate in those days of toe clips and straps \u2013 it was the 80\u2019s before clipless came along. Amateurs like me often got the positioning wrong and ended up with soles which looked like they\u2019d been hit with a shotgun after we\u2019d re-nailed the cleats three or four times. And if it rained look forward to stuffing then with newspaper a time or two to dry them out.<\/p>\n

\"shoes\"
You need a cobbler<\/p>\n

Socks: Always white \u2013 unless you were a Russian, they favoured black \u2013 and the correct length was just above the ankle joint \u2013 now, they\u2019re rarely white now and some of the colour combinations are horrible. And we know that some materials are more aero than skin so the UCi have to measure them to prevent them reaching the knee in order to save those precious watts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"Those
Just no \u2013 Even if you have won the Tour four times<\/p>\n

Shorts: Lycra was a few years away so wool was the material of choice and the chamois was actually that, the skin of some poor goat. Busy mums had no time to dry your shorts slowly so they handed you back shorts after washing with a chamois which resembled a \u2018poppadum\u2019 from an Indian restaurant. You had to sit for an age massaging baby\u2019s nappy cream into the thing to get it soft enough to sit on. Bib shorts were still to come so if you didn\u2019t wear braces and it rained there was a real risk of your shorts falling down when you got out of the saddle unless you wore braces \u2013 \u2018suspenders\u2019 I think they\u2019re called across the Atlantic?<\/p>\n

\"chamoix\"
Nothing like the feel of wet chamoix<\/p>\n

Under vests: Call me a \u2018dinosaur\u2019 but I still wear my cotton \u2018Belgian\u2019 undervests from back then, bought in Dossche Sport in Gent \u2013 they still do a job. But in these technological days you can even get undervests which will enhance the aerodynamic qualities of your speedsuit. Skinsuits only came along in the late 70\u2019s, before that if you were looking for the \u2018edge,\u2019 in a chrono then silk shorts and jersey was the way to go.<\/p>\n

\"merckx\"
Stars wear an undervest<\/p>\n

Jerseys: \u2018Maillots\u2019 as they call them in France; even the early 70\u2019s stars had jerseys which flapped in the breeze and we\u2019d only dispensed with those horrible chest pockets in the late 60\u2019s. Materials weren\u2019t nearly as sophisticated as they are now and if it rained you could literally wring your jersey out at the finish, there was so much water in it. Talking of the late 60\u2019s, some of the French teams were so conscious of saving a few Francs that the team jerseys had no zippers, unlike today\u2019s full zipper jerseys. But whilst the materials and cut have progressed over the decades the designs have not, when one looks back at the likes of Peugeot, Ti Raleigh and Bianchi jersey there are very few current maillots which match their classic purity of colour and format.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"
Classic<\/p>\n

Crash hats: Belgium was the only country where crash hats were mandatory, the old \u2018hair nets\u2019 which stopped your fractured skull getting cuts and abrasions. The coolest were the Danish \u2018Banani\u2019 lids, set at the correct jaunty angle. The Bell \u2018hard shell\u2019 helmets first surfaced in the USA and had us shaking our heads \u2013 they\u2019ll never catch on. . .<\/p>\n

\"Roger
The old helmets had style \u2013 maybe not much safety<\/p>\n

Caps: \u2018Casquettes\u2019 the French call them, in the UK we called them \u2018Oppy Caps\u2019 after the legendary Australian cyclist, Sir Hubert Opperman who was a devotee. Nowadays they really only get worn on the way to the sign on or under a helmet but back in the 70\u2019s everyone wore them.<\/p>\n

\"indurain\"
\u2018Big Mig\u2019 knew how to wear a cap<\/p>\n

Aussie \u2018podcaster,\u2019 Mitch Docker has made a science of, \u2018talking luft\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s the amount of air you have between the top of your head and inside of you cap. You NEVER pull them down tight \u2013 Miguel Indurain is the undisputed \u2018casquette King\u2019 albeit the rumour mill alleges that those with the best \u2018luft\u2019 back then used to spray their casquettes with hairspray to maintain the \u2018luft.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"merckx\"
Mmm, those chamois mitts<\/p>\n

Mitts: Back then it was elegant crochet backs with contrasting stripes or some of the stars, like Eddy Merckx would have perforated all chamois mitts with their names printed on. But once it was discovered that certain fabrics are more aero than skin we\u2019ve seen mitts creep depressingly further up rider\u2019s wrists.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cool as Coppi<\/p>\n

Shades: Back then only those who needed glasses \u2013 like super cool Jan Janssen \u2013 or in certain conditions, snow for instance you would see Eddy Merckx in shades. Greg Lemond and Phil Anderson revolutionized things in the 80\u2019s with their Oakleys and now it\u2019s unusual to see a bare faced rider. There\u2019s also the worrying trend toward ever bigger lenses, veering towards images from 60\u2019s science fiction comics.<\/p>\n

\"Hoogvliet
And then Oakley came along \u2013 Factory Pilots ruled.<\/p>\n

Leggings: Some of the leg warmers from back then were actually good, I still have my Jacques Esclassan jobs, from that era. But many of the \u2018bottoms\u2019 suffered from the same malaise as the shorts, they soaked up water like a sponge and weighed a ton \u2013 braces were a must if you didn\u2019t want them to head south.<\/p>\n

\"santini\"
The modern world of leggings<\/p>\n

Track tops: As with maillots, technological fabrics have made us all so much cosier but when one looks back at a Merckx or Gimondi in their Molteni and Bianchi track tops their simple elegance is in marked contrast to some of the horrors of the fades\/blends\/splashes of today.<\/p>\n

\"gimondi
Simple elegance<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m not yearning for the, \u2018good old days\u2019 \u2013 I remember those days of looking like a Michelin Man when you head out on a training ride. These days with the modern fabrics, on all but the coldest of days, three layers will keep you cosy.<\/p>\n

\"\"
One of Ed\u2019s early bikes<\/p>\n


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