3alarmer 

Can this be true ?

Did Sears actually sell a bicycle in 1971 made
from Reynolds tubing ?

Certainly this seller is not the sharpest tool
in the shed, but still....is this just a misapplied
tubing sticker or was the exchange rate so
skewed in 1971 that this was possible?









https://sacramento.craigslist.org/bik/2653435158.html

due ruote 

That's legit. I've had one; Dbkl has a couple of them. Decent ride, cosmetics are so-so.

tugrul

Search for Ted Williams 531

neurocop

Did anyone note that the seller described the bike as made of Reynolds 531 aluminum tubing? Maybe they were thinking of Reynolds aluminum foil...

The seat stays look kinda thin, and so maybe the main tubes are Reynolds and the stays made of other steel.

3alarmer 

Thank you very much for the search lead.

4Rings6Stars

The tubing used to make a bike is only a portion of what makes it into a nice riding bike. A lot of us get caught up in the name--"if it's not 531 or SL/SLX it's no good" or the even more egregious "It's 531 or SL/SLX so it must be good".

I'm not saying it isn't a nice bike. I'm just saying that the fact that it was made with Reynolds 531 doesn't mean it is a good bike...

RobE30

I have one running 37 Pasellas, Suntour Cyclone d/r and mustache bars. Fun bike until you stand up and try to mash it, lil noodly then.

well biked

We had one in our shop, a young guy had bought it from a guy who worked at Sears in the '70's. I later talked to the guy who had it originally, he said when he bought it they were only available through the Sears catalog. I don't remember much about the bike, but the color was exactly like the one in the original post. I seem to remember that the componentry wasn't very impressive. The young guy who bought converted it to a fixie, and it was later stolen IIRC.

due ruote 

The one I had came with a Crane RD, which I think was stock. The crankset is kind of cool, but not top end or anything.

well biked

Nice looking bike. IIRC, the crankset on the one I saw was really cheap looking, and it had some kind of outer chainring guard on it. Nothing wrong with that, but was a little surprising. (edit: it looks like the bike in the OP has one). I'm sure they were nice bikes, but maybe not equipped with stuff that would have more typically been on a bike with 531 tubing.

Do you know if they were made by Puch for Sears? That would be my guess, since Puch did make a lot of bikes for them.

due ruote 

I have a feeling that's the same crankset, but I removed the chainguard.

I believe they were made by Puch. That's what I was told anyway. IIRC the headbadge said 'made in Austria for Sears'.

JohnDThompson 

The curious thing about these bikes is that they were sold right alongside American built gas-pipe Free Spirits for the same price. Consumer Reports had an article on bikes in which they mentioned that looking carefully for the Made in Austria bikes would get you a much better ride than the standard Free Spirit.

lostarchitect 

I think that's kind of a cool bike. I like the color, too. I'd be willing to pay close to what he's asking for it.

3alarmer 

Not my size......the field's wide open. I was just kinda flummoxed by
the concept of a 531 Reynolds free spirit.

Hell, if somebody can convince him to do it, I'll even try to facilitate
just this one time only. It's not that far away from me and I need
some good karma to offset my generally obnoxious personality.

You might want to consider the cost of shipping, though. Adds
considerably to the price of the bike.

3alarmer 

They sourced some J.C. Higgins branded 3 speeds out of
Austria that were very nice. I reworked one for my wife
once. It had an AW rip off hub and a custom cutout chain
wheel that said J.C. Higgins around the interior. Very chic.

lostarchitect 

Looks too small for me, also. If it was in my local market I might take a look.

himespau 

I like the lugwork. I'd always been under the impression that they sold several different levels of the Free Spirit but that could be wrong. And probably is.

ScottRyder 

Lot's of good info on the Puch/Sears connection Martin Cohen's excellent website:

https://www.company7.com/bosendorfer/ADbicycle.html#1946

Scott

well biked

Yep, I thought of that after I posted. Without the chainguard, it does look kind of cool, as you say.

nfmisso

My dad had one of these; as I recall it was closer to 1974. I regret that I do not know what happened to it.

It was made in Austria by Puch. It was double butted 531, including the forks.

It was an awful bike to ride. I had an earlier Sears made in Austria 10 speed; it was blue, lugged frame, wing nuts on the front wheel. That was a nicer bike to ride, but the frame flexed side to side an incredible amount.

Absolutely the case here, great materials, awful product. My World Tourist, despite being MUCH heavier, is much nicer to ride, and faster.

Sixty Fiver

These were produced by Austro Daimler / Puch for Sears and the frame and fork are Reynold's 531.

Oddly enough, and considering the frame material... they were fitted out with heavier and lower end components with the exception of the rather wonderful Crane rear derailleur that was fitted to some models.

My friend built one up as a fixed gear and sold it to another friend and it has been taking a pounding for the better part of five years, I had received the bike in nearly new condition and as it was too large, passed it along.

They do have a beautiful ride but are also one of the most whippy bicycles I have ever ridden, if you like to stand up and hammer this is not the bike for you.

Sixty Fiver

Will second the opinion that, jut because a bicycle is built from Reynolds 531, that does not automatically make it a great bicycle although the odds are usually quite good that fi a builder was using 531, the bike would have been of better quality.

The Puch Free Spirit is not a terrible bike and with some nicer parts would make for a great ride for a lighter and gentler rider.

noglider 

Buy RobE30's. I think he's selling it, and he spruced it up very nicely.

sillygolem

They also made a few (50 IIRC) bikes they gave out to employees one year equipped with a Campy grupo. Puch bikes were sold alongside Huffys up until the early 80s; toward the end a Puch was 30-40% higher priced than the Huffy, although to the average buyer they'd look identical.

ciocc_cat

I'll second that. In the late 1970s Iverson manufactured a line of gas-pipe bikes for Suncrest, which was Sunray DX Oil Company's short-lived ill-fated attempt to utilize unused gas station service bays and convenience stores as bike shops. Their catalog (which I sadly no longer have) included a Reynolds 531 framed bike "Made in Austria" that looked suspiciously like the 531 Free Spirit. Coincidence? I suspect that A-D Puch was probably pumping out a bunch of similarly-spec'd 531 frames for American retailers.