1979 Powerlite - BMXmuseum.com

A long time ago,,,,in a time far, far, away.....bicycles were actually awesome. The parts were high end and on par with race car equipment, and the finishes were beautiful, with deep anno's, great welds, awesome chrome, and eye catching overall styling. But building bikes is like any other manufacturing operation,,,it is a business. The cheaper, you can build something, the more money you make. So what companies did, was year after year, they slowly started making the bikes cheaper and cheaper in quality. First generation Mongooses, Gt's, Se's,and Redlines were all excellent high quality bikes. The reason these companies are still around today is because those high quality, early, bikes they built, had enough staying power to establish these companies and the brand. People buy these name brands today because of name recognition, not because the bike has any resemblance to it's predecessor. What used to be made in a small shop in California,,,,is now mass produced on an assembly line in Asia,,,,,Do you think there's a difference?