Sears bike on CL
 

Found this on CL- any info on this bike? Appears to have decent components.


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For sale is a fantastically old school bike.

Nervar Crank
531 Straight-Gauge Chromoly steel
Rear wheel and derailleur are aluminum Campagnolo Nuovo Record/Campy Record hooked up to a clincher rim (no decals that I could see).
Front wheel is a UKAI Aluminum wheel.
Brakes are alloy center-pull with functioning QR and barrel adjuster functions.
Internal Brake Cable Routing (rare on such a vintage bike)
Fresh grease in the steering
Alloy stem, Alloy handlebars
Smooth Campagnolo downtube shifters
Wrights leather saddle (not broken in, has been given some leather treatment to preserve it)

New inner tube
New handlebar tape.
New cables and cable housings.
New brake pads.

Overall, it's a fast and neat bike that was designed for the high-end Sears. It's their top-of-the-line from their catalog.

Pretty decent bike. What does the seller want for this bike? Sears marketed some pretty decent bikes manufactured I believe by Puch in Austria.

There are a number of threads on BF on these bikes. Here's one, http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ee-spirit.html

Well I think I found the answer in another thread (from 2006), but if anyone has additional info or an idea on fair price (guy wants $250.00) it would be much appreciated.






Sears Puch 1965/ Ted Williams


Thought some of you might appreciate more information on the Sears/Puch connection. I purchased in July 1965 what was probably the best road bike Sears ever sold. I had spotted the bike in the Sears catalog initially, but purchased it a the Sears store then located in Landmark shopping center in Virginia (D.C. suburbs). I had to save for a year and a half to afford the thing and my parents were appalled I was spending almost $100 on a bicycle! I was only a freshman in high school with no cycling buddies so even I didn't know just how good a bike it was. Ok, enough background. The bike came with a Campagnolo Record (bronze/chrome) front/rear derailleurs. The frame itself was Reynolds tubing which I believe to be type 531. The frame was painted dark gold, white pinstripes, with partially chromed front fork and rear chainstays, leather Ideale (France) seat and toolkit, aluminum front and rear fenders (nice but they got the boot immediately), aluminum Weinmann rims/Normandy hubs with chrome quick releases, chromed steel handlebars, Ava stem, Nervar cottered crank, Lyotard pedals, odometer, internal (top tube) routed brake cable (really nice touch!) and Weinmann 999 brakes with unique gold painted brake levers. It also came with Ted Williams decals (not "Easy Spirit"). Somehow I can stomach Ted Williams on a bicycle better than the lame "Easy Spirit" term but neither seem appropriate on a high quality bicycle.

Also I just noticed that there are suicide brake levers- my understanding is that high quality bikes did not have such? Maybe the brake levers were changed?

Many people added these because they were uncomfortable without them. That alone is a red flag, but not a disqualifier. If the bike is as desribed, it's a mid level bike (even if it was the top of the Sears line).

OK, not worth $250 then- to me anyway- I try never to pay more than $150 for a midlevel bike, which most of mine are. Looking at a 1981 Miyata 710, think I'll stick with that at $150.

The old post I found says the bike had Weinmann brakes and a little googling I found that Weinmann did have suicide levers so maybe they are original.

FWIW, Reynolds 531 is NOT "chromoly"; it is a manganese-molybdenum alloy, and has zero (or very little..) chromium.