Wspokes wrote:
> What's the collectibility if any on a older, probably 70s Sears/Roebuck
> Made in Austria, 27 in wheeled townie type bike. I located one in the
> attack of my grandfather's garage when my dad and I were getting out
> some old 50s Chevy parts...we came across this and my dad didn't even
> know it was up there. It has a 5 speed with simplex shifter. Synchro
> brake set up. It has dust but no rust...So, is there anything special
> about these bikes? Any groups that yearn for the Sears ones?
The Austrian-made Free Spirits were actually pretty nice frames. For many years they were made from Reynolds 531, had forged dropouts, etc. They generally came equipped with fairly mediocre components, though, and the store managers were generally clueless about them. I remember reading a Consumer Reports article back in the day that mentioned looking at the label carefully, because the bikes built on American-made gaspipe frames were priced the same as the ones built on Austrian-made 531 frames.
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-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA