In 1975, the American department store JC Penney hired 12 college students to ride their bikes 4,000 miles from New York City to San Francisco. They were promoting their new disc brake equipped bikes OEM’d from Huffy Manufacturing. This 14-minute documentary chronicles their journey.

The cyclists didn’t exactly look well prepared for their journey, as they rode across the continent in tennis shorts and t-shirts, rather than cycling gear.

The film doesn’t include much commentary, but does have some great shots of the scenery.

The group averaged about 125 kilometres a day on their journey and the film crew just joined the group periodically. They stopped at 35 shopping malls along the way for a bike safety show, and the safety show that they put on looks strange to say the least.

It’s an interesting look back at bicycle touring in the 70s.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here