juvela

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Does anyone know of a complete listing for these?

There are online directories of Sears product source codes but each have been able to locate is for a specific category only such as tools, machinery, appliances, electronics.

Have been unable to locate one showing all the bicycle suppliers.

Codes known to me are:

502 = Murray

503 = Steyr

510 = Riva-Sport

Other Sears bicycle providers included Bauer, Chiorda, Huffman, Motobecane...

Thank you for any information.


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3speedslow

I’ll check my Sears bike but I believe them to be all Steyr/Puch manufactured. Might take a few days.

Hummer

I have never seen a list of supplier/manufacturer codes for Sears and Roebuck. The maintenance guides to Sears bicycles had the code printed on the guide but you have to figure out who the manufacturer was.

I have seen on different Sears bicycles and documents more than a dozen codes.

dweenk

I had a 1975-ish Sears 12 speed with a serial number 5C108449/489 471 430. I assume that 489 is the manufacturer number and it would be Asian - probably Japan or Taiwan.

juvela

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thank you!

serial and item numbers are marked separately

"usually" the item number is struck more evenly/uniformly than the serial

have not previously heard of any bicycle vendor numbers below 500...but then am attempting to learn about them

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Hummer

Yes, a Taiwan manufacturer from 1975. Probably the FS-12 model, based on the catalogue code.

Vintage Schwinn

That 1984 Free Spirit "Sunbird" 10 Speed with nice Black Cherry paint color (burgandy wine type of color) with SHIMANO RS rear derailleur, RIGIDA SuperChromix STEEL wheels of 590mm 26 x 1 3/8 37-590 with <84> , the year stamped within the < > stamping on those chrome steel wheels, this has a Cottered 3 piece Crank, and the frame is a relatively decent lugged frame with gold hand painted accents at the lugs that you can only see upclose at a distance of less than two feet, I believe that these 1984 Free Spirit "Sunbird" 10 speeds were made by KIA in Korea. The reason that I mentioned KIA is because the frame is identical to the 21 inch mens frame that I recall being sold in circa 1979, and 1980 as the KIA ______ cannot recall the bike's model name at this moment. Those KIA bikes had the exact same frames, but uglier paint, and no-name knock-off front and rear derailleurs, where as the '84 Sears Free Spirit "Sunbird" has a Shimano RS rear derailleur. The 3 piece cottered crank and front chainwheels are exactly the same between the circa '79/'80 KIA and the '84 lowest priced SEARS Free Spirit "Sunbird" 10 speed. That 3 piece cottered crank looks every bit like something straight out of 1962......something even the low-life European brands still sporting junk European rear derailleurs did abandon cottered cranks by 1973, 1974 , 1975 to avoid being so far behind the Japanese in quality. These 3 piece Cottered cranks function okay and are decently durable but archaic. The stem shifters on these '84 Sears Free Spirit "Sunbird" bicycles are No-Name Knockoff look-a-likes in a nice looking alloy metal on the women's step through model which is approximately a 19" step through frame. The men's '84 Sears F.S. sunbird has two crappy black plastic levers on its NO NAME stem shifters. The men's DIAMOND frame is a 21" frame. THOSE WERE THE ONLY FRAME SIZES AVAILABLE, just the one 21" DIAMOND, traditional men's frame AND just the one 19" STEP-THROUGH frame. As I mentioned those '84 SEARS Free Spirit Sunbird 10 speeds only came in the one frame size, 21" for men and 19" for step through women's frame, and they only came in the black cherry paint color which is a very nice deep burgandy wine color. The paint quality is superb on these '84 Free Spirit Sunbird 10 speeds. The paint quality and paint colors on the 1979-1980 KIA 10 speeds were not very good. Otherwise the frames are exactly the same. These '84 SEARS Free Spirit Sunbird 10 speeds have sidepull caliper brakes which are NO-NAME KNOCKOFFS of the WEINMANN model 810, except that these No-Name Knockoffs are made of plain steel. These bikes have a plain ordinary heavy steel bolt on kickstand. These '84 Free Spirit Sunbird 10 speeds are still lighter in weight than most of the PUCH built Ted Williams 10 speeds of 1965-1975 & the 1972-1980 PUCH built Free Spirit 10 speeds. Certainly the SEARS best, most expensive Austrian made Ted Williams 10 speed of the bike boom might be lighter, but as I recall those still generally came with European junk derailleurs such as SIMPLEX. The Austrian bikes are garbage compared to what the the Japanese manufacturers FUJI, PANASONIC, & BRIDGESTONE were bringing into the USA from 1972 onward. I do not think that SEARS ever carried any PANASONICS... etc except for radios and tape players. This is just to emphasize how far everybody was behind the JAPANESE in 10 SPEED QUALITY during the 1970's in both the affordable to moderately expensive price range. This is why most European brands were wiped out. This is why the major American brand names of that time were all wiped out. This is why Shimano has had no equal for more than 40 years. Hey, this KIA built, lowest priced 1984 Free Spirit sunbird 10 speed is a nice looking anachronism with its Cottered crank that looks like something outta the early sixties except that it has a relatively decent, although heavy rear derailleur model, the Shimano RS, which was a sturdy durable entry level 1981 updated variant of the Lark/Skylark. All of those ancient 1962 era ten speeds had to deal with the Campagnolo, Huret and Simplex rear derailleurs, all of which are junk, relatively speaking when compared to anything 1968 or later from Shimano or Maeda SUNTOUR. Yes, the 1984 Sears Free Spirit Sunbird 10 speed was SEARS' lowest priced 10 speed model at that time, and it probably was the last 10 speed ever made that did use a cottered 3 piece crank, but despite this it did have a reliable, durable basic Shimano rear derailleur, and a decent enough Korean made frame that wasn't bad for an inexpensive 10 speed. Laugh if you want to, but I have converted three pairs of these His & Hers cheapo circa 1984 Free Spirit Sunbird 10 speeds to upright tourist configuration that their over 45 owners ride regularly--. (with Schwinn 7881 handlebars, Weinmann/Dia-compe gold dot or red dot tourist levers and the Bell Pitcrew 600 replacement cable set and a tourist spring saddle seat) A 12 speed Free Spirit sunbird was also offered for about $20 more I think. (see Sears Spring 1984 catalog)
Personally, I do prefer the Murray built (with One Piece Crank) "Brittany" & "Greenbriar" Free Spirit 3, 5, and 10 speeds from circa 1980 thru about 1985. Yes, these are heavy basic gas-pipe frames, but most of these "Brittany" & "Greenbriar" Free Spirits came with full fenders and with very snazzy deep medium blue or in a beautiful deep forest green with coordinating similar painted fenders. These are fantastic basic tourist cruiser bicycles if you don't need to maintain a 15mph average pace over your 20 mile ride, just repetative doing laps through the park on the roads within the park. Anything with a One Piece Crank is ultra-simple for the know nothing do-it-yourselfer that just wants to ride tourist cruiser style at an average 10mph to perhaps 14mph pace depending on fast that your feet can fly....riding up and around the bend.....saturdays in the park.....and on the 4th of july, and labor day too.
Most of the 1972 to the end of the seventies, one piece crank FREE SPIRITS had either horrible paint work or excessive decal applications that often looked really raggedy within the bike's third birthday. The Austrian Ted Williams versions of the late sixties and seventies weren't any better paint wise, but the decal application was more minimal and conservative and done more tastefully than what went on most 1972 - 1978 Free Spirit 10 speeds.
Still, despite this, all of the Sears 10 speeds of the seventies, cheapo to Sears' Best model was decent enough.
These still are useful today as an anti-theft, no reselling value for thieves, 10 speed bicycle, OR as a low cost do-it-yourself Upright Tourist conversion for someone who does not care about weight......no need to take the load off fanning, as your riding comfortably on saturdays in the park.....slow riding, taking it easy.
These are still very capable bicycles for this purpose. The one piece crank models are the best for this slow ride, take it easy , super simple do-it-yourself upright cruiser 10 speed. IF YOU REALLY WANT A CLASSIC LIGHTWEIGHT VINTAGE 10 SPEED, YOU WOULD BE MUCH BETTER OFF WITH A CLASSIC JAPANESE MARQUE 10 SPEED THAN ANY VINTAGE PUCH/STEYR 10 SPEED BICYCLE AS MADE FOR SEARS!

3speedslow

Sears had a 10 speed Puch made bicycle with Full Reynolds 531. That’s frame and fork!

juvela

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yes, thank you

the forum has had several threads on examples

source code would be 503

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currently suspect source code 506 to equal Bauer but need more data...


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