Does anyone know what supposedly Italian model 10 speed was sold by Sears in the early 1970s? What I had bought was not branded Free Spirit and was painted gold. Thanks for any info.

i dunno about an italian built sears but for years they sold Austro-Daimler/ Puch's under their Ted Williams brand

sears:

Hmmmm, "From free Austria" that ad says. There was an un-free one after WWII too?

Yes.

After World War II Austria was divided into "zones". There also was a Russian Zone.
See the film "The third man" with Orson Welles. Remember the Harry Lime theme: Plonk-a plonk- a plonk - a plonk?

I bought a 10spd from Sears in about 1970 that was from Austria. I was 13 and had just moved back from England where my dad was stationed with the Navy and my 10spd Raleigh was stolen from our screened-in porch. The Sears bike was electric blue with white plastic handlebar tape, a cottered crank, Simplex derailleurs, and Weinmann centerpulls. It wasn't a great bike, but I rode it everywhere for about 2 years before moving on to a Kennistons and then a Holdsworth (which I still have)..

I believe the "Third Man Theme" was by Anton Karas .

While I'm proof reading, check Sear's spelling of Campagnolo in that ad.

Weight "under 31 pounds"! That is pretty heavy for a bike sporting Campy Record, even in those days. The steel cottered crank seems like an odd choice of component as well.

In the 70s, during the bike boom - Sears had trouble meeting demand with supply from Puch - so some of their ten speeds came from France. It's possible they also got some bikes from Italian makers. At this time they started getting their cheaper bikes from Huffy and Murray too.

And steel rims, stem and handlebars, seatpost...

Having some pics and a serial number would be a big help.

The blurb does say it has aluminum rims. Probably the fenders, seatbag and kickstand help push up the weight. Wonder what tubing was used in the frame?

This one was on ebay not long ago. Nice frame actually.
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=002

This is an Italian Sears roadie that I sold quite some time back. Does yours look like this?

The seat tube decal reminds me very much of the Batavus decals from the Netherlands. I believe that there was no model name on this Italian job

https://

https://

https://

BigWoo's appears to have been a Chiorda.

My first 10-speed was a Chiorda sourced from either Simpson-Sears or Eatons (can't remember which) in Canada. Simplex, downtube shifters, cottered cranks, Ballilla brakes, nutted axles. Purchased for around $90CAD in 1969 or so....

It was white and labelled Chiorda though, unlike BigWoo's which is branded Sears with "Made in Italy". Rode that darn thing everywhere!

Mark

T-Mar: Bingo, Chiorda is what it was and was it my first 10-speed. It had a different paint scheme (gold metalic) and no Sears decals. May have a photo or two in a box in the attic, but I expect they would have been in a batch of things I thought I no longer needed about five or six years ago. Thanks for the info! What an amazing forum where someone can pull that obscure info out of nowhere so fast?

I had a 1972 10-speed from Sears which was stolen in 1976, much to my dismay. It was a metallic royal blue with translucent blue handlebar tape, and so beautiful that I cleaned every inch and polished it with car wax. It originally had butterfly wing-nuts on the front wheel, but after that was stolen I got a longer chain-lock and a cam-lever quick release wheel.

It was a lot heavier (but better looking) than the Fuji models that were then popular, and more rugged - enough so to ride furiously as long as I dodged potholes. It was my sole mode of transportation from the beginning of my Sr yr in HS to the spring of my Jr yr at Ball State U.

It had a name, but I can't remember it. It was definitely not Ted Williams - I had a Ted Williams bat and glove in 7th grade, and my name is Ted - I would have noticed that. Nor was it a Pusch - I lived in France for 3 years and was atuned to spot European-sounding names.

And certainly it was not an AMF Voigt. That was what my Dad 1st bought for my 16th B'Day, but it broke. He went and got another one, and it broke too. He told the PX they needed better stuff and went to the Sears store in Newport News, Va, and came back with a winner. I loved that bike. Can ou help me remember the name?

Can you tell what it was called?

For what its worth, here's the Austrian version (some parts changed):

Some interesting non-sequiters in that ad... "weight under 31 pounds"... "whitewall tires"... "47 to 101 gear ratio"... now that's pretty butch!

$94.50... I'm guessing that's in the mid-late 60's...?

I ran into one of these Sears bikes back in 1975 or so. As the ad dbakl posted indicated, it did indeed have the steel campy record rear derailer as well as the record front derailler. It also had the "thru the toptube" routing for the rear brake cable, pretty nifty for that time period, which I believe was mid to late 60's. I don't recall a trip meter, tho!