In the late 1980s Panasonic Bicycles introduced the Panasonic Individual Custom Series (PICS). It was all about how a customer could walk into a shop, get measured, and order a bicycle that – purportedly, according to the marketing spiel – was the net result of 10,000 design options regarding tube lengths, frame angles, fork offsets, and wheelbase. Full page ads appeared in all the magazines showing a rider and his “one-of-a-kind” bicycle.
I guess it struck a nerve with me that Big Industry Inc was appropriating the waters that I swam in. I mean, there may be 10,000 options but I believed 9,999 were the wrong ones. So, out came the cutting mat, the X-Acto blades, the photographs, and the 3M Spray Mount. This was war atmo.
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