Re: [CR]Info: Made in Austria Sears bike

(Example: Production Builders:Teledyne)

Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 18:14:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Fred Rafael Rednor" <fred_rednor@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Info: Made in Austria Sears bike
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <431E39C6.6050602@cox.net>


Important question:
     Did all those Sears bikes have that horrid, flat plate, rear brake bridge?
     Actually, I think this was a distinguishing feature of all the lower end Puch/Austro-Daimler like bikes. I remember seeing one of these sometime during my college career (around 1971) and being absolutely perplexed.
     The example that was proffered for my approval (me being the only ABL licensed racer on campus) had Reynolds 531 tubes and that questionable rear brake bridge. My recollection (somewhat impaired by age and substances that prevented a better racing record) is that this bike had Simplex changers, Weinmann brakes and some sort of cottered crankset. The rims were round.
     Later, I encountered a fair number of bikes with the same sort of rear brake bridge. Many mixtes were built like this. I _think_ that even the ultra-cheap Bianchi I purchased in 1973 (with Campagnolo Valentino changers) had this sort of brake bridge. It wasn't a bad bike once a replaced the RD with a SunTour VGT. Sadly I crashed it, in front of the IRS building, while racing a bus on Constition Avenue.
      Cheers,
      Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)


-------------- Harvey M Sachs wrote:


> Walter Skrzypek 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?
>
> <snip>
> and John Thompson responded:
> 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.
>
> My memory differs; John's may be better than mine. In the
> early to
> mid-60s, Sears offered one "real" 10-speed, with Weinmann
> brakes and
> alum rims, and Campy "steel" record derailleurs. I have one,
> and it is
> NOT Reynolds 531. Indeed, the pipes have seams. In the
> mid-1970s, there
> was another "top-line" Sears, which was apparently only
> available in a
> hideous lime, but was otherwise as John describes it: 531 DB
> frame and
> forks, with as low assembly quality as I ever saw on a 531
> frame, and
> middling Japanese components. Nice Shimano drop-outs, and
> Crane rear
> derailleur; titlist front. I believe mine had SR imitations
> of Suguino
> Maxy cranks. Mine buckled in a head-on collision with a park
> ranger on
> a bike, and has retired (with the manual) to Larry Black's
> home for odd
> framesets.
>
> Now memory is getting weak here, becuase I had no interest in
> the other
> Sears models, even if they said "Ted Williams" like my '65.
> But I think
> I remember some lugged 3-speeds from Austria with cheapo
> squashed end forks.
>
> By the way, at one time you could buy Shimano "E" disk brakes
> from Sears
> catalogue, since they had been used on one Sears model. Fine
> tandem
> brake for that vintage.
> harvey sachs
> mcLean va
>
> _______________________________________________
>

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