Originally Posted by
Chombi1
A-Ds from the 70's/80's were pretty much just re-branded Puchs. IIRC, the A-D brand was just used for the US market to make the bike's more sellable as I guess, the thought was "Austro-Daimler" sounded much more impressive the "Puch".
Whether A-D/Puch had anything to do with the old car company Austro Daimler, I don't know. There might have been some old historical connections in Austria.
As I understand it Austro-Daimler-Steyr-Puch is/was a single company (I might have them in the wrong order). There is an article somewhere (probably Classics Rendezvous) about an American marketing guy who was responsible for the A-D branding/color selection/specs for the American market. The Superleicht pictured in the 1976 catalog is actually a one-off that AD/S/P made for him. A guy on this forum used to own that particular bike, but he has since passed it on to the guy (also an American) who currently owns the rights to the A-D brand.
That bike is worth a long look. Check out this thread:
http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ht-part-i.html
There is a trail of links there to the rest of what I've said, I think.