New guy, old Puch
 

So I picked up an old Puch Force XII today. I'm new to the vintage, (and bike) world, so I'm looking for info on it. All I know (which isn't much) is based on the worn decals. It says Renyolds 531 tubing and has a suntour cyclone derailleur. I'll try to get a photo in the morning, my phone isn't cooperating right now.

Any info on this bike would be much appreciated.

Looking forward to the pics -- sounds like a nice bike! Reynolds 531 is arguably the benchmark for good steel tubing. Suntour Cyclone gear was below their Superbe and Superbe Pro models, but still very nice.

Puch was an Austrian company that made bicycles, then mopeds and motorcycles, and later built cars. It merged with Austro-Daimler in the 1920s and became part of Steyr-Daimler-Puch in the 1930s. The bicycle business got spun off in the late 1980s, but the Puch name has continued to be used by the buyers. The Puch name is now controlled by Cycleurope, who also owns the Bianchi name among others.

Welcome to bikeforums. You picked a great bike to start your journeys with. I picked up a
Force XII last summer and thought the ride quality and responsiveness were excellent.

Thanks. I took it for a short ride (I'm not going very far when the wind chill is below 0) and it rode great. It's got some rough spots on the frame, but what do you expect after 30ish years. Anyway, here are a pic.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...ACAFF8F387.jpg

Looks Good

Of course it's good -- it's Austrian. :) Thank you, SkyDog, for the brief history of Puch -- very interesting and informative for an owner of bikes from Austria's other (and much smaller) bicycle exporter to the US, Capo.

Nice half-step gearing, too.

Nice looking bike. I believe that it sold for between $400 and $500 when it was new. Puch did a nice job of mixing European and Japanese parts on some of their bikes.

This bike sat in NNJ CL for many, many weeks. The RD on mine is Campagnolo NR I believe. Interesting that mine lacks chrome socks.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/hh1me3k21n0...39.29.jpg?dl=0

Yours looks very nice, seats looks a little uncomfortable though :)

I'm actually not sure if the chrome socks will stay or not. Do you think they're original to the bike? I just assumed they were added later. If they're original I may see if they clean up and I'll leave them on.

Cyclone is some of my favorite kit. I have a set on my Trek 600 and love it.

Nice bike! I just got into this as well and my first bike I got last Thursday 80's Univega Viva Sport for $90 with Shimano 600 components

I bought the bike from a woman and it had a modern WSD Bontrager saddle. So not taking the saddle saved me $20. I like chrome socks; I wouldn't think that someone would have it done on an aftermarket basis. Just found this page, appears mine is a 1982.

http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalog...orce%20xii.jpg

A 1981 shows Suntour Cyclone, but not chrome.
http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalog...Force%2012.bmp

After cleaning them up and looking closer, it's just just reflective tape, not chrome. It's on the fork, the seat stay, and the head tube.

That tape is hard to remove. A heat *** and some Goof Off will do the trick, not at the same time of course!