I'm looking at a few Puch Austro Daimler bikes for sale locally. All are a champagne color and none have detailed enough pics to make out a model or type of hardware. Not only that, but the only resource for catalogs and info is bulgiers site and seems to be down.
any info on these bikes would be appreciated. One bike is on offer for $25 so it would seem a safe bet.

$25 is grab now, research later. Puch made a wide variety of bikes from basic to excellent. Color is not an indicator. But at $25, just grab it or someone else will. While you spend time researching, someone else is loading it into their car.

They made a wide range of bikes from basic entry level riders to top notch luxury bikes that they promoted as being the most expensive production bicycles you could buy. Even the entry level bikes are worth $25 if you enjoy fiddling with that sort of thing. Their top of the line bike are outstanding and would be a great value at $250.

Champagne?
My Olympian is 'Sand'. I think.

Olympian had a short life 1981 & 82. Maybe one extra year. The Vent Noir had many more years.

The worst AD is a bargain at $25. If it happens to be a bit higher up the chain, huge win.

Look for the absence of safety brake lever extensions, stem mounted shifters, stamped ends where you insert the wheels. Look for stickers indicating better frame material on close-up shots. This speeds up the sorting out process when looking at ads. Correct frame size for a keeper is big, so look for head tube size in photos. A-D for $25? That would get my attention!

One of the better history pages on the Austro Daimler,
Austro Daimler

Quite an interesting read. And lest someone miss out because of the https, change the url to http if it fails to open in your browser.

Yes, I tried re-editing my post and can't seem to get the "s" out

A nicely pretentious article if you can get past the 1st sentence. And flowery language, And gushing descriptions of handlebar or stem, etc.

The Bicycle That The Owner Of A Bösendorfer Imperial Piano Would Ride

barf

obviously the author has an overly lofty opinion of his place in life. A Victorian era holdover.

but, my ADs do ride nicely. Even the lowly one.


1980 Michelle

Welcome to the C&V forum, I’ll go with grabbing any $25.00 A-D bicycle. Always wanted a Vent Noir, but the one local dealer in the late 70’s was very short lived. Keep us posted as to what you find/bring home.

Bill

The AD's were a genius in marketing in the 70's when the US distributors of the Austrian "Puch" brand, decided to sell their bikes in the US under the old and impressive sounding "Austro Daimler" name (Complete with the very classic looking graphics and paint finishes) that had its storied roots in a already long defunct European car company.
Like the bikes from similar companies I mentioned, the AD bikes were solid and reliable bikes that satisfied the needs of most riders of all levels.
In reality,the brand isn't really more exclusive than Peugeot, Motobecane, Bianchi or other similar mass production manufacturers from Europe, if one will look at its model rages offered back then. Maybe a bit better with some of their higher models, but nowhere near more "artisan" brands like Colnago, Pinarello or Masi.
AD did compete with its bike at the pro level with well known pro riders like Jonathan Boyer in the late 70's/early 80's.
The AD brand was resurrected a few years ago and now the bikes are coming from China. The new, modern (mostly CF) AD bikes look impressive enough and are covered with big AD graphics proudly shouting it its brand name. It proves that the name is still quite impressive sounding, even to modern cyclists.
......JMOs.....

If it’s the one above then it’s nothing special. Steel rims, cottered crankset, safety levers, stamped drop outs. Even then, it could have some decent parts on it.

Absolutely grab it for $25. I got lucky with this Vent Noir a few years back. While picking up a couple Craigslist bikes from one seller he said if I take them all I could just take this "old" black one out back. I was honest with him about the quality of this bike and that the purchase price for all of the other bikes would be good for this one individually. He didn't seem to care and threw it in the deal. I have upgraded it with a newer Dura Ace group, but still have all of the first gen D/A parts (Crane rd and drilled crank). Fun rides!

At $25, really cannot go too wrong.