uncle uncle

I'd like to think this was the Sears campaign to rip off Coke's "I'd like to teach the world to sing"... but what do I know. I have a soft spot of Sears Free Spirit bicycles, as in the tiny dust spot of town that I grew up in, smack deep in the sticks of Middle Merika, the biggest connection to the outside world was the Sears Counter. For those unfamiliar with the concept, the Sears Counter was a catalog store, where you could walk up and have someone take your order of anything from any current Sears catalog. For my home town, the "Counter" was in a space not much larger than standard double wide work cube arrangement. The front half of the store had an actual bar height counter, with a order taker person or two sitting at it. The back half was a temporary storage area for orders, waiting to be picked up by their soon-to-be new owners.

Sometimes, a new washer, or dryer, or stove, or b-b-q grille might be highlighted by being on display in the precious space available at the front of the store... and, on a rare occasion, a FREE SPIRIT BICYCLE! For a kid who never set foot in a K-mart, having a bicycle on display in a store was a strange and magical arrangement. I guess in my ten year old mind, that elevated bicycles into the world of adulthood, where adult things like clothes washers and b-b-q grilles hung out and cemented themselves as icons of adult desires and achievements.

And really, other than all of the parts being from the lowest bidders to supply them, the hi-tensile frame may have been on par with my first "big boy, bike store" bicycle. Who knows... anyway, in the free spirit of things, did any of you update a Free Spirit (or any department store bicycle) into something better than it should have been? Just curious...

Wildwood 

"When you have a 3 speed, you will always have a place to go."

Unless you live in a mountainous area, or on top of a great big hill.
Oh well, Coke didn't teach me to sing, either.

uncle uncle

I'm hard of listening too, but I think they sing... "When you have a Free Spirit, you will always have somewhere to go." Then again, how does one hear grass grow?

stardognine

52telecaster

My free spirit was a very crappy american made gaspipe no lug frame kind of bike.

Lemond1985

WARNING: Titillating Free Spirit Content:

uncle uncle

The 10 year old me looked at those Free Spirits too, but not the same way as the bike Free Spirits.

Lemond1985

Both types can often be had for free.

dweenk

I have a lugged Free Spirit 10 speed that I saved from a dumpster. It's now a 5 speed with 700C wheels and moustache bars.

curbtender

When I see the klunker challenge threads, that's what I'd like to see posted. Nice save.

WilliamK1974

My very first bike was a Free Spirit, and my next bike was as well. I got the second one sometime around 3rd or 4th grade. I was dark purple with upright bars, caliper brakes, and a Shimano internal 3-spd. When I got my next bike a few years later, it got moved to my grandparents' house. I'm not sure what happened to it after that. Seems like I remember it being kind of heavy and clunky, but it got alot of saddle time.

canklecat

My first big boy bike, after a Sears knockoff of the Schwinn Stingray, was a Sears 3-speed, early 1970s. I didn't know much about bikes, paid no attention to the tubing, joints or weight. I just enjoyed the heck out of riding the thing. At the time we lived on Long Island, pretty flat along the coastal roads so three speed was plenty. I do remember laboring up a few hills toward inland but when you're 13 years old everything seems either much harder and more dramatic than it really is, or much easier than it really is.

Last time I saw that bike was when we were moving. It had been stolen from the school bike rack (the thief probably considered it "borrowing") and I hadn't seen it for awhile. As we were driving to the ferry en route to the airport in NYC I saw it outside a gas station run by the family of a classmate. That bike may still be taking trips to the beach almost 50 years later.

SurferRosa

1970s ...

best

decade

ever.

uncle uncle

I'd be tickled pink if I could find something along these lines. Have to hang out at my local Coop some more, and hope. Cool bike. I think I could easily get away with a 5 speed for just peddle plunking around town.