Now that we've grown accustomed to the computer we
tend to forget that back in the day our bicycles were ordered on paper by our local bike shop over the phone or through the mail. We love the rugged hand-made simplicity of this mimeographed order form.
(Mouseover form to enlarge, use up and down arrow keys to scroll)
Lotus offered 22 different model bicycles in 1987, 21
on this list and the special order Cinelli Design Supreme.
Bikes came in 4 to 9 sizes and 1 to 3 colors. To stock
the full line of bikes in every model, color and size you'd need room for over 300 bicycles.
The Excelle and the Unique were available in 9 sizes
each and in 3 colors each. It seems logical that the best selling bicycles would be available in the most sizes and colors.
The Eclair was only available in 4 sizes but you could
have any color you wanted as long as it was navy blue.
For simplicity in ordering and inventory control the
bikes were assigned a letter-number code, L-1 through
L-21.
The column on the left are the Lotus road bikes and the column on the right are Lotus touring, ATB and the new
for 1987 Aluminum Leger and Esprit at the L-20 and
L-21 positions.
Also on this list is the T-1 and T-2 Cruiser and the T-3 Urban Explorer. Given the "T" designation we're taking
a guess that these were not Lotus models as they aren't listed in the 1987 sales information.