Classic & Vintage - A bunch of old bikes need identities! Puch, Murray, Ultra, Free Spirit

Hey I came across a bunch of vintage bikes from craigslist and just picked up 4 bikes for $30. I had great success in updating an old '72 Peugeot UO-8 and it was tons of fun, so I picked these up, not knowing anything about the bikes, with hopes that you guys at bikeforums can help me out (like you always do!). I went on sheldonbrown but he only has the Puch on there.

here are my questions, and I'm at work right now so I can't post pics, but I'll upload pics later today:

1) origins of bikes?

2) what types of bottom brackets do i need so I can replace the BB and crankset? That's the most important part, to me. I want to, at the very least, replace cranks and wheelsets.

3) Value? I got all 4 of them for $7.50 and that's well worth it for me for the frame, and at the very least, the long reach center pull brake calipers.

Here's the bikes (and sorry for the crappy descriptions, I will post pics later)

Murray - 'Team Murray' on the toptube 10-speed, white frame

An Ultra 10-speed. that's all it says in the frame, in blue. it also says 'Ultra' on the headtube so I guess that's the brand. Can't find anything on this one

Puch Meteor, black frame, 10-speed. Looks pretty good. The headtube has a steel Puch logo (how do you pronounce this?).

Free Spirit Dynasty, blue frame, also 10-speed






Check out the old Peugeot I did:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=443587&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=107135636722&aid=-1&oid=107135636722&id=1553478400

Puch Meteor, black frame, 10-speed. Looks pretty good. The headtube has a steel Puch logo (how do you pronounce this?).

Depends.

If you restore it as a classic 10-speed, you automatically preserve the original pronunciation, which we might represent as "pookh." That is, /poo/ plus the German /ch/ sound. This is sometimes represented as /kh/ to assure maximum confusion. It is the sound a child makes when imitating a jet engine. You also find it in Bach (the composer), Loch Ness, or "yech!" (the sound a c&v purist makes when s/he sees a geared bike turned into a fixie), etc.

When the bike is turned into a fixie, the original pronunciation is lost, and you have to read the name "puke."

Several of those bikes are not worth the expense of new wheels, bottom brackets and cranks. The Puch probably is, the rest are bottom end, department store bikes. Clean them up, resell them, or donate them to your favorite charity. There are just a couple of rare exceptions, I am assuming without pics that you do not have those models

Thenks for the pronunciation tip! I'll probably try my best to restore them all anyway.

My concern is getting a modern rear derailleur. Would I need a hanger adapter like this?
http://www.bikeparts.com/search_results.asp?ID=BPC109497

They all look to be axle-mounted.

I found that the Free Spirit is actually a Sears brand.

Pics will be coming up soon!

If you restore it as a classic 10-speed, you automatically preserve the original pronunciation, which we might represent as "pookh." That is, /poo/ plus the German /ch/ sound. This is sometimes represented as /kh/ to assure maximum confusion. It is the sound a child makes when imitating a jet engine. You also find it in Bach (the composer), Loch Ness, or "yech!" (the sound a c&v purist makes when s/he sees a geared bike turned into a fixie), etc.

Also very similar to the sound that Maude makes just before asking Harold if he wants some licorice.


When the bike is turned into a fixie, the original pronunciation is lost, and you have to read the name "puke."

:roflmao:

Check out the old Peugeot I did:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=443587&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=107135636722&aid=-1&oid=107135636722&id=1553478400

Well, if you have to go around messing up old bikes, you might as well do it to the crappy ones rather than the somewhat nicer ones, such as this Peugeot.

That said, the Peugeot looks very nice. The one thing I'll never understand, though, is the attraction of those hideous welded stems when the lovely and elegant forged (and sometimes cast) aluminum ones are still plentiful and cheap at bike coops and world wide webs everywhere, and ... er... what's that? Did somebody say "McDonald's"?

Here's pics. I'm more interested in knowing about the Puch and the Murray Phoenix Team Murray bikes.

Sears Free Spirit Dynasty (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1506&g2_serialNumber=3)

Ultra (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1515&g2_serialNumber=3)

Puch Meteor (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1523&g2_serialNumber=3)

Murray Phoenix Team (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1533&g2_serialNumber=3)

Go here for more detailed pics: http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1396

Thanks for the compliment on the Peugeot. I'm sorry I didn't have the resources to restore it to its original glory, but I got the UO-8 frame for free and it was plagued with rust spots all over. The only way to go was to take off all the paint.

Compare the front dropouts (where the front wheel's axle attaches to the frame) of the Puch and the Murray. The Puch has one that's of reasonably good quality. The Murray - is about as sad as they come without being a danger to ride around the neighborhood. It's hard to tell for sure from the pictures, but the other two bikes look like they might not be much better than the Murray.

Sorry to come off so critically, but I seriously would not put more than $10.00 into any of those other three bikes. The Puch is the keeper there (and even it wouldn't give a great return on investment), and the other three might be cannibalized into making something functional that you could donate, or sell for cheap.

Good luck with your projects. Your heart's in the right place, and you'll learn a lot.

I think your UO-8 looks pretty good. Those other bikes aren't anything special, all look pretty low end.

thanks zorro! you're not being too critical; I wasn't expecting to find a treasure when I picked these bikes off the floor of some guy's garage. These are all going to be project bikes for me, and I didn't want to destroy a good bike and find out later it's a 1 in a million masterpiece. It's better to work on some crappy bikes, like roll monroe pointed out! these are less for investment purposes and more for toying around as a project. I will probably get the murray and puch back up and running, and maybe give one of the others to a family friend. Would all of these use english standard bottom backets?

The Puch and Murray look like they have 3 piece bottom brackets, I would bet on standard english threading. The free spirit looks to be a one piece Ashtabula crank. They are a bit different but simple to work on.

Here are some good instructions for the Ashtabula crank:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/opc.html

I didn't notice how bent the fork on the Ultra was... yikes!

Here's pics. I'm more interested in knowing about the Puch and the Murray Phoenix Team Murray bikes.

Sears Free Spirit Dynasty (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1506&g2_serialNumber=3)

Ultra (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1515&g2_serialNumber=3)

Puch Meteor (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1523&g2_serialNumber=3)

Murray Phoenix Team (http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1533&g2_serialNumber=3)

Go here for more detailed pics: http://photography.phifatech.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1396

Thanks for the compliment on the Peugeot. I'm sorry I didn't have the resources to restore it to its original glory, but I got the UO-8 frame for free and it was plagued with rust spots all over. The only way to go was to take off all the paint.

Sorry for being a jerk, ptech. Like everybody else here, I want to encourage tinkering, learning, and riding. Your enthusiasm is commendable. Keep wrenching and keep hanging around. :)

Sorry for being a jerk, ptech. Like everybody else here, I want to encourage tinkering, learning, and riding. Your enthusiasm is commendable. Keep wrenching and keep hanging around. :)

+1. Anything you do to those bikes, if it will keep them (or even parts of them) being ridden, is a good thing.

Look over the Sears Free Spirit, because it may have been made by " Pooch , " too.