The cool thing about the "Made-In-Austria" bikes sold by Sears, Pennys, and perhaps Wards, was that any teenager in 1965 or 1970 could order from their catalogs. In 1970, outside of big cities and college towns, many folks had never seen a ten speed bike. And, in a small town in 1970, the local store most likely only sold Schwinns, which were expensive relative to a teen's income.

So, a fourteen year old kid, who was $20 short of being able to afford a Schwinn Varsity could order a ten-speed bike from the Sears catalog. Hopefully, the kid was good with a wrench, because in a "one traffic light" village, he might be the only guy on a ten speed bike.

John Howard, America's outstanding cyclist of the 1975 to 1985 era wrote about growing up in a small town in Missouri where a ten speed bike was a rare and exotic beast. Sears put a ten-speed in reach of any guy with $50 or $75 in his pocket, including a guy living in small town Missouri.

It is a shame today that that same kid in a small town has two choices. He can drive a hundred miles to a Trek dealer, and pay $600 for an entry level road bike. Or, he can go five miles to Wal-Mart and pay $75 for a hunk of Chino-crap. The affordable, reliable road bikes sold by Sears no longer exist. If someone wants a well-made, reliable $200 road bike and they live in a small town, they gotta be hitting the yard sales.