My first 10-speed was also made by Puch, and sold by Sears for my '65 Christmas present. It was also the only bike that was ever stolen from me.
There were three listed in the 1065 Sears catalog, gold - top of the line with Campy, blue - middle (the one I had), and red - the cheapest. Mine didn't have any Campy, but it did have the alloy rims, and bars & stem. It used the same frame as my Bergmeister has, with the exception that the Sears bike had a braze-on mount for it's Lucas Cyclometer, and it had Sears decals. These frames are easily identifiable by their crimped, fluted looking, seat-stay top ends, the chrome trimmed oval holes in the top tube for the cable & housing to go through, and their head lugs which look like no other except J.C. Higgins and Steyr/Puch. The gold and blue ones also had about 7 or 8 inches of chrome on all stays and the fork blades. I'm still looking for a replacement, and I wouldn't mind having one of those gold bikes either.
Incidentally, I have an older book called "Bike-ways" that has a cover photo of a gold J.C. Higgins road bike (10-spd.?) that appears to be the same as the gold top-end bike in the Sears line-up.
On Sun, 31 Dec 2000 09:03:48 -0500 Harvey M Sachs <sachs@erols.com>
writes:
> At 08:09 PM 12/30/2000 -0800, Mark A. Perkins wrote:
> >'78! Why son you should do a little research on the Puch line.
> The one
> >I own, and I hardly think it could pass for one of their early
> bikes, is
> >about a '65 "PUCH Bergmeister". And, considering what was
> available at
> >the time, it's an above-average bike in my opinion, and not just
> because
> >it came with Campy Grand Sport derailleurs either. And, just in
> case you
> >didn't know, most of the J.C. Higgins bikes sold by Sears in the
> '50's &
> >'60's were built by Steyr/Puch, or whatever they called themselves
> back
> >then.
>
> My first "10-speed" was a used Sears, Roebuck "Ted Williams Sport
> Special"
> I bought in the Fall of 1962. I had another one, later, and would
> love to
> find one again, for nostalgia's sake. Somehow, I "knew" it was a
> Puch or
> Steyr, but can't remember why. Before you sneer, consider:
>
> --> The alternatives, in cosmopolitan Houston (where I was
> incarcerated at
> Rice U) were such lovelies as the Dunelt and the Schwinn Varsity.
> --> The "Ted Williams" had 27' Weinmann rims, Weinmann 999 CP
> brakes, Campy
> GS derailleurs, and the famous Normandy spoke-popper rear hub, which
> had
> the left flange so far to the left that the right spokes couldn't be
>
> tensioned enough. I also remember some chrome, and an
> internally-routed
> rear brake cable (big holes in top tube, continuous housing). QR
> wheels.
>
> There wasn't a lot of dealer experience there, either. I was told
> by the
> local dealer that the brake QRs were used by racers to get
> adjustable drag
> for downhills....
>
> harvey "not too nostalgic" sachs
> mclean va