WHAT kind of BIKE IS THIS??????
User731860
In celebration of the Bi-Centennial in 1976, Sears & Roebuck sold a bike
for $750 made from the best bike components available at that time. Among
other things, it has a Reynolds 351 frame painted a metallic gold/green.
Does anyone know who made this frame for Sears?
John Thompson
I believe it was Austro-Daimler. Sears marketed Free Spirits
made of Reynolds 531 for several years in the 70's.
-John (jth...@ibm.net)
Jeremy Borum
On 7 Oct 1996, User731860 wrote:
> In celebration of the Bi-Centennial in 1976, Sears & Roebuck sold a bike
> for $750 made from the best bike components available at that time. Among
> other things, it has a Reynolds 351 frame painted a metallic gold/green.
> Does anyone know who made this frame for Sears?
>
>
It's a safe bet that one of three companies made it. Bike frames are much
like cars - there are a big three that make most of the frames that end up
in the US. There's Giant, KHS, and Cannondale. It's not necessarily one
of those three, but it's a starting point.
John Thompson
These bikes (circa 1976) pre-date all three of the companies you
mention. The frames for the Sears Free Spirits made of Reynolds
531DB tubing were manufactured by Austro-Daimler in Austria.
-John (John.T...@ibm.net)
lui
John Thompson <jth...@ibm.net> wrote:
> These bikes (circa 1976) pre-date all three of the companies you
> mention. The frames for the Sears Free Spirits made of Reynolds
> 531DB tubing were manufactured by Austro-Daimler in Austria.
>
> -John (John.T...@ibm.net)
Think thats wrong. Austro Daimler built cars, but was out of business
long ago 1976. Puch, for some time named "Daimler-Puch" ("Waffenrad")
built frames but none from 531 DB, their frames were mostly mild
steel.Production was sold to Italy, decades ago.
Lui
Thomas H. Kunich
Karl Frantz
Oh, I found the reference I was thining of (check out
http://www.dejanews.com). It's a thread in rec.bicycles.tech, entitled
"Stealing a sears derailleur". Wouldn't it be neat to find *this* at a
yard sale:
>In <1996Jul26...@spcvxb.spc.edu>, 5leit...@spcvxb.spc.edu >writes:
>
>> Some of Sears' early 10-speed bikes from the mid-1960's had
>> Campy derailleurs. In 1962, from a copy of their catalog I have,
>> Sears had two "racing" bikes for sale. One of them was an 8-speed
>> model, and the other was a 10-speed with Campy Gran Sport
>> derailleurs.
>> The 10-speed came with a wide assortment of accesories, including a
>> pump and a tool bag with wrenches.
>> It seems that Sears sold better quality bikes years ago.
>> After the '60s, their quality seemed to go downhill.
>
>In the 1970's, some Free Spirits were made from full Reynolds
>531 (by Puch in Austria) and sold alongside (and for the same
>price) as the USA-built gas-pipe models. Consumer Reports even
>commented on this and recommended looking closely if you were
>planning on buying a Free Spirit.
BTW, in 1976 $750 for bike would have been an unbeleivable amount of
money to almost anyone.
Karl Frantz fra...@eng.pko.dec.com
Karl Frantz
My first ten-speed (ca. 1976) was a Sears Free Spirit. It wasn't 531,
but I remember hearing at the time that some earlier ones were. I
recently saw a reference to 531 Free Spirits having been built by Puch,
and sold right alongside the high-tensile steel frames at the same
price. Supposedly, Consumer Reports even reported on this at the time.
I wish I could remember where that conversation took place!
BTW, the bike I had was nothing special, but was nicer than one might
think - alloy stem (& bars, if I remember correctly), alloy cotterless
crank (SR or Sugino, most likely), Shimano derailleurs and freewheel,
Dia-comp centerpull brakes. I had set of alloy wheels built for it
using the usual Normandy hubs and Nisi-Evain rims. That bike got
stolen, unfortunately.
It's worth noting that not all 531 tubesets were double-butted, and
given the price-point Sears was undoubtedly working to, 531 Free Spirits
were probably straight guage, and likely only used 531 in the main
tubes; a common configuration then (well, in the price ranges I and my
friends operated in, that was what we saw a lot of :-).
(Hmm... one might infer from my choice of words above that 531 is no
longer with us. Of course it is still available.)
Karl Frantz fra...@eng.pko.dec.com
Todd Teachout
In article <1996101416...@atnet36.atnet.at>, lui...@atnet.co.at (lui) says:
>
>John Thompson <jth...@ibm.net> wrote:
>
>
>> These bikes (circa 1976) pre-date all three of the companies you
>> mention. The frames for the Sears Free Spirits made of Reynolds
>> 531DB tubing were manufactured by Austro-Daimler in Austria.
>>
>> -John (John.T...@ibm.net)
>Think thats wrong. Austro Daimler built cars, but was out of business
>long ago 1976. Puch, for some time named "Daimler-Puch" ("Waffenrad")
>built frames but none from 531 DB, their frames were mostly mild
>steel.Production was sold to Italy, decades ago.
>Lui
Dear Lui,
I think your right about the name Daimler-Puch which did have an Austro-Daimler
brand moderately promoted in the 70's. J. Thompson is also correct.
Sears did sell, through their catalog, an Austrian built 531 frameset.
I have a friend who acquired 3 of them. Sears sold them for $69.95. They
rated pretty poorly in terms of design but they were of made of the best grade
materials of the era. Very ugly.
AugustBrodgesell
Austro-Daimler framesets were indeed made by an Austrian company called
Puch. Furthermore, they made some models that included the Puch name
including one called the Ultimate or some such thing. I remember seeing
one in late 70's at a bike shop. Came in a custom cloth case and featured
some of the finest craftsmanship I have ever seen, would put current
Colnago to shame. Was extremely expensive. Have seen many 80's vintage
A-D bikes, and everyone I ever saw was 531 tubed.
Ches
In article <543hi3$6...@news.ios.com>, jyc...@198.4.75.52 says...
The newer Puch's are made with Columbus tubing and are still beautiful. Now
could someone tell me what vintage is my Puch?
It is a Puch - Bergmeister, my guess is from the 60s. Original colour was
kind of a silverish colour, sort of like the Benottos. Head metal badge has
big "Bergmeister" script and in the centre has the Puch logo(green and white).
Heavier steel tubing(probably just plain steel), decaled "PUCH - Bergmeister"
along downtube and had a Made in Austria decal on the top of the seattube
facing the rear wheel, and some other decals. It has pump pegs on downtube,
internal cable routing on top tube with braze-ons at cable entrance and exist.
It also an interesting oil port at the bottom bracket shell. It takes a
25.0mm seatpost, and originally had the short reach(really short) Weinmann
Centre pull brakes. The fork is entirely chromed but only fork tips were left
unpainted. It is very much like a track fork(round blades) but has a very
large rake(very curved) and very unique crown that is hard to describe. The
fork rake cause it to have a very long wheelbase, 42in. The seat angle is
very slack in comparison to the head, probably a 72/70. 57cm seattube with
55cm top tube. Headset size is very strange, as none of my headset would fit
onto the frame(way too loose). Original headset appears to be very low
quality. It had Nervar steel cotterpin style cranks with 2 chain rings,
english threaded BB.
I repainted the frame with candy blue colour, as Cyclartist suggested that it
was the more popular Austro Daimler colour. Had some decals cut and saved the
headbadge. I now use it as a fixed gear winter bike with blue Blumels fenders
, and blue Benotto bar tape to match. I sometimes wish that i never refinish
the bike because it used to look very classy, but then the paint kept flaking
off and created lots of surface rusts.
Ches
Sweattman
Let's just be proud that we both own bikes that generate so much interest.
These old Puch's could prove to be real collector's items....
lui
Ches <cl...@intergate.bc.ca> wrote:
>
> The newer Puch's are made with Columbus tubing and are still beautiful. Now
> could someone tell me what vintage is my Puch?
> It is a Puch - Bergmeister, my guess is from the 60s.
The "newer Puchs" are made in Italy. Puch stopped the bicycle
production.
The "Puch Bergmeister" was a "real Puch", made in Austria, not one of
the "great bicycles" its price new was between $200,- to 300,-, it goes
now used between $30,- to 100,- in Austria. I broke some of this frames,
used them in training only, around 25 years ago.
Bye, Lui
biketo...@gmail.com
http://biketourings.com/3/post/2013/06/64-puch-bergmeister-bushed-and-polished-steel-lugs.html
Andrew Chaplin
news:828f3534-ea85-42b6...@googlegroups.com:
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)
retrog...@gmail.com
cycl...@gmail.com
> In celebration of the Bi-Centennial in 1976, Sears & Roebuck sold a bike
> for $750 made from the best bike components available at that time. Among
> other things, it has a Reynolds 351 frame painted a metallic gold/green.
> Does anyone know who made this frame for Sears?