Is this Sears a 531???
 

Ive been reading the threads about Sears' bikes made in Australia but most info is about the gold free spirits.
Could this be a Sears with 531? Its a "Sport Racer"
I read the 531s had chrome fork and stays......
Thanks

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...glas/Sears.jpg

Austria (by Puch) not Australia.

Could be based on the lugs and the RD that looks like a Crane. On the other hand it looks like it has a triple up front.

It could be. The ones that I have seen were branded "Ted Williams" Free Spirit. That said chromed fork tips, front & rear plus a 3 piece crank means that this bike was at the top of the Sears heap.

Hahaha! I misread that for a whole 30mins probably while reading old post

No it's not. Just to look at the bike, to observe any and all features, one can confidently deduce that it's a more mid-level bike. Vent Noir models and others were, they also came in blue. Sears wasn't known to have such a level. Anything's possible but in your bike ; the parts, the excessive graphics... ets... cry 'a more standard model'
Stickers can come and go so if you want, check the seat post diameter, if it's 27.2 it MIGHT be 531. If it thinner, it's not. I doubt it is 531. The chrome tips indicate the range of years if they indicate anything at all. I've seen my share of the Sears bikes and not a one was 531. Could be 501 but I doubt that too.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ms-Free-Spirit

Compare. I don't think they are the same bike. Though I won't say yours isn't nice. Picture of the dropouts might help in the ID though.

So it seems the Sears with 531 only came that gold color. Thanks for the help.

The bike is not in my possession. Was hoping for a potential "find"

Proper thread title should be;

Is this a real 531 bike, or a Sears 531 bike?

It's a nice riding frame, if you're looking for a nice base for a commuter, it could be a nice canidate.

Nice. Needs a set of zircon-encrusted brake levers.

Puch made 10-speed bikes for Sears in the 60s and early 70s. I don't think that these were ever labeled as Free Spirits, but were Ted Williams brand (what the heck did he know about bikes, anyway?). The top of the heap were made with 3-main-tube 531 construction, and spec'ed with parts as needed to fit whatever price-point that Sears was aiming for (read that...low end parts were the norm for these bikes).

This is your bike, right? Nicco thinks that it is 531 (ignore the smish-smoosh of parts on this; it has been seriously retrofitted.) The following was posted as a way to tell from the head badge if you have a Puch:

"...Look at the headbadge. If it is a diamond shape with rounded corners and the Sears logo is in a circle, it is either made by Puch, President (Germany), or a Derby(Poland). The country of manufacture is usually in VERY small letters on the headbadge..."

Nicco's headbadge is gone, and I can't see yours from the picture that you posted...and I sucked that quote right off of the webz, so I can't speak to the veracity of it. Gives you some smoking gun kinda evidence if it is supported by your headbadge, though.

Not mine. Was looking into whether or not it should be.
Instead though I found a 1979 Trek 710 with reynolds 531 in my size!!!! Im very excited

The greenish gold paint was one way to spot the 531 Ted Williams bikes. Another was a VERY long top tube, at least on the 21-22" seat tube frames.

Around here there were at least two rather oddly proportioned gents who had asked several bike shops to let them know if any came in on trade-in.

advantage: trek. Full 531 frame, silver soldered and double butted, versus main tubes only and straight gauge.

Unless the 531 tubes were plain gauge, which was common on bikes with only 531 for the 3 main tubes.

Correct, 26.6mm seatpost verifies Reynolds 531 straight guage similar to Raleigh Supercourse straight guage on Sheldon Brown's seatpost database. My blue sears made in Austria bicycles are Reynolds 531 as verified by seatpost diameter with a caliper

Welcome to Bike Forums!

Am I the only one who really likes the curvy fork ends?

Are those seat stay caps "scooped out?"

I like the lines of that bike. It would be a cool project.

Based on the few samples I've seen, the flute is created by simply crimping shut the top of the seat stay. Very crude and economical.

Robbie, look closely at this enlargement of a TW and you can see the seam at the top where it has been pinched shut and how the operation has even caused some cracks in the steel, at the top edges of the crease.

The curvy fork ends indicate that the fork on this bike has lots of rake, and consequently low trail. Many European bikes of the 60s and 70s were designed this way. Low trail went out of fashion by the end of the 70s, when all bikes tried to be road racers (with less rake and higher trail).

Zombie thread so it's academic, but I agree 100%. Also really like the narrow fork blades, the chrome socks and seat tube stripes. Top tube graphics seem pretty hokey but the whole package has loads of character. If I found one at the right price I would grab it for a SS townie or some such.

thanks for the welcome!
 

The blue sears made in Austria Sears bike was especially momentous. I had a paper route bike likely a sears jc higgins bicycle, and with the added weight of the papers, fractured the frame tube to head tube joint. The guys at Sears may have felt sorry for me and 8 hours later I was riding on a 10 speed frame. Little did I realize it was Reynolds 531! It rode like the wind, a 3.3 mile paper route was typically done in 15 minutes. The jerry rigged bike had a 3 speed hub in the rear and it was stuck in 3rd gear with likely an 88 gear ratio. When riding my ten speed Continental on Sundays I comfortably rode in 10th gear at 20mph from delivering newspapers 7 days a week at 50 cents a day. I spent 25 cents on most days buying French Napolean 7 layer pastry at the White Hen pantry. Bought the Schwinn Continental in opague blue after a year and bought a Zenith 19 inch black and white TV the next year. Thought I was very rich. Every day I got to wave and visit with the neighborhood people on the paper route. So that is what the blue Sears Reynolds 531 frame meant to me, and now I have those memories again!

OK guys I do not know what to do. I have a CCM Concorde men's bike and just restored a CCM Concorde mixte bike.
I have two of the above blue Sears Reynolds 531 bikes. So all of the above bikes are Reynolds 531 main tubes. The CCM men's Concorde was retrofitted with 27 x 1 1/4 alloy rims and plastic pedals to it handles nicely and is pretty light. The Sears Reynolds 531 bikes have about 4 more inches of fork rake making nice touring geometry. The CCM bikes are made in Canada and are not that well known, and the mixte ccm bike has some pitting that does not come out with 4 "0" steel wool in a few places on the rims. Running out of room in the garage! Advice?

I wish I had problems like you! Decide which you want to keep and move the others on.

Pics as always...