nvm, mods delete- help identifying
 

So I am not too accustomed to the vintage world. But I was just wondering if anyone could help identify this frame and if its junk or not. The front skewer looks interesting, but I cannot tell if it actually is, or if they literally just put a wingnut on both sides lol


thanks



--I blame it on the cold, I didn't pick up on the fact that the ad answers these...

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/bik/4268483742.html

The answers to all your questions are actually in the posting itself.

damn im an idiot

thanks for saying what we were all thinking. :roflmao:


If you offered $50 during this "Attack of the Artic Vortex" the seller may let it go. It could be nicer than most '70s Boom fodder but only better pics would tell for sure. I believe (from reading here) Sears did at one time sell some nice Belgium made machines but who knows if this is one.

My general rule of thumb is no RD hanger no deal.

haha thanks, and i am glad someone at least pointed out my stupidity nicely.....that could have gone a different way until I realized

It does appear that the Rear Deraileur hanger was cut off during the fixed-gear conversion. I was cured of the urge to ride fixed-gear or fixed-speed after helping someone else sort out one they had. When I rode it I never felt it was in the right gear and kept reaching for the downtube levers that were not there.

Isn't there a Problem Solver d-hanger that might resolve the issue?

I wouldn't be sure there was a derailleur hanger there in the first place. However, the frame actually looks like a pretty cool for a dept. store bike. Might be worth checking out. I like the fork, cool crown and nice curve to the blades.

It does indeed look like a good sub-$100 vintage bike in pretty good shape in spite of its age.

this is a Steyr built machine. essentially a Bergmeister in Sears livery. steerer will be 26.0mm.

+1^^, BINGO.

That it's essentially the Bergmeister model (and not the same-color Clubman model that I've got) is evidenced by the internal rear brake cable housing, but Sears perhaps cheaped out and ditched what I recall was the Bergmeister's exquisite twin-plate(?) fork crown for a plainer one, but it's definitely not the Clubman's even-cheaper, trim-covered crown.

But perhaps none of these lower-to-mid-priced Austrian bikes had derailer hangers to begin with. My derailer has a claw mount.

And their lugged/brazed frames appear to have their dropouts electric-welded to flattened stays and fork blades. At least my Clubman model does, but maybe not the Sears and Bergmeister models that I notice also have chromed rear stays.

My similar Clubman had awful cable clips everywhere, and that I had to replace just to look at the thing!

Before and after. Notice all the zip ties I had to use initially, even the gear housing, yuck! ...And gawd, it was well over 30lbs with the steel rims. Much better now.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8357/8...23938973_z.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8087/8...4e22f069_z.jpg
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=358622

thank you dddd for the excellent pictures of your mount. :thumb:

i suspect that some of the differences you mention may not be only between Clubman and Bergmeister as they may be differences through time as well.

Steyr also made a Reynolds 531 model bike for Sears in the late sixties. iirc it came with an SR Silstar chainset and had a flambouyant chartreuse paint scheme. huge clearances and a long wheelbase.

the missing headplate on the present steed would have been of stamped aluminum sheet with black writing.

There are no skewers. What ou have there are Wingnuts which were very common on European 10 speeds in the 60s and early 70s.

So the date would be mid sixties, I'm guessing?

she looks to hail from the 1968-70 time.

That sounds right to me.

Remembering that these bikes are quite old-fashioned, but also that these price-point bikes usually have even more-dated components and frame geometry, with in-house, high-volume manufacturing lines left as-is long enough for the company to amortize development and inventory costs.
Only the bikes sold to discriminating cyclists need to be kept up to date, barring any gross market shift as to a completely different style of bike.
Where the price-point bikes were perhaps ahead of their time was with the addition of "turkey wing" brake levers, wide-ranging chainring gearing (mid-1960's), and, to many of us, the use of clincher tires instead of tubulars.

the wingnuts were standard for the Clubman model. the Bergmeisters came with QR hubs, iirc.

it is interesting to note that the machine in the craigslist listing appears to have a NERVAR, or other french, chainset while the one shown by dddd in his post has an Agrati chainset. i would guesstimate that dddd's example is from several years later than the Sears bicycle.

Wow, how did you know it is an Agrati chainset? I can't find any name on it at all. I thought mine looked just like the craigslist bike, minus one ring(?).

Indeed, the Sears bike seems to be a budget-built "special" version of the Bergmeister? The fork crown looks just like the one used on some of the Ted Williams Steyr bikes sold by Sears, and which had 531 main tubes and Record shifters/derailers.

I might have assumed that my crankset was produced in the Steyr factory, but just as easily could have been sourced out.

Mine is like a 1972 model, as printed on the rims iir. It did come with alloy/steel 3-piece hi-flange hubs with solid axles and wingnuts!, and I think that the Craigslist bike has these wheels also.

I seem to recall that the front hub was stamped France and the rear one Italy, even though they were obviously an identically-named, matched set! Threading was stamped BSA on the dust shield.
I posted this photo at the time, trying to show the "MADEINITALY" text on the steel center barrel:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8091/8...c3865d7f_c.jpg

stern hub likely Gnutti. bow hub may be New Star or other Perrin brand. Agrati chainsets are typically not marked. when i blew up the photo of the craigslist machine its chainset looked french but then me peepers are not what they once were...;)

the bike in this new thread clearly has a NERVAR chainset:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ch-built-Sears

it is about two years earlier than the mount in this thread.

You're right, both hubs (French front and Italian rear) have New Star stamping!

Italian New Star...now THAT is a new one on me. ;^O

I don't remember ever seeing a Bergmeister with quick release hubs, it was a low end bike. It and the Steyr Clubman were the cheapest bikes sold by my LBS.