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Bike Nashbar

Bike Nashbar was the friend to many cyclists looking for parts in the pre-internet era, and the foe to Local Bike Shops everywhere, before Amazon brought everything crashing down. They made quality bikes, which weren't any more mass produced than many boutique brands which off-shored to Asia.

Arni Nashbar started Nashbar in 1974 as a mail order bicycle parts company out of his home in New Middletown, Ohio. Ten years later Arni was selling six million dollars a year of cycling merchandise. Originally called “Bike Warehouse,” Arni lent the business his own name of “Bike Nashbar” in 1981. Bike Nashbar soon sold complete bikes and likely sold their first mountain bikes in 1983¹⁾. Catalogs are hard to find, which is likely due to their being mostly printed on newsprint, and being for decades the largest, most complete cycling catalog published. Eventually Bike Nashbar was sold to Performance Bicycle in 2000, which was then purchased by Advanced Sports International²⁾ in 2016, which then all went bankrupt in 2018, resulting in 100+ brick and mortar Nashbar and Performance shops to be permanently closed.

Resources:

Arni Nashbar, from the 1990 Bicycle Magazine Buyers' Guide. |bikeforums

1983 Nashbar XT

Shimano Deore XT v1 (1982-84), bullmoose bars, Araya rm-20 rims (1988+), Shimano SL-M700 shifters (1982-86). Showed up in 1984 bike guides printed in 1983 and not in the 1984 catalog. However, the 1984 Terra XT has newer components.

1983 Nashbar XT pedalroom