Brotrainnm

Hello fellow bike fans. I need a hand identifying this bike I just so happened to pick up from my local dump the other day. I'm in the process of cleaning it up/getting it road worthy. However! There are no identifying stickers or badges on the frame. The bike has been repainted at least one time. It's yellow now but the green underneath is peeking through in some spots. Its serial is still stamped into the frame. The bike has a Simplex prestige derailleur in the rear. Front derailleur is also of Simplex make. The kickstand says ESGE UZ PLETSCHER. The hand levers for the brakes are Altenburger. Bike also came with cat eye reflectors all over it. Looks like there might have been a rear fender or cargo rack at some point. You can see a weld that's broken beneath the seat. I'll happily post some photos but I've got to get in on some action and drum up 10 posts before the big reveal! Per community guidelines 0:

WGB 

Welcome to the Forums.

If you click on your own name (left side of the screen on a desk top or just your name at start of this thread) you will then go to your home page. There you look at the right side of the page and you will see "photo albums".
Add photos there.
Return here and add a supplemental post asking someone add those photos.

machinist42

OP's Album.

Brotrainnm

Roger that I'll update my profile and add some pictures of my dad's old Fuji too!

rustystrings61 

That looks a lot like the cheap West German Kalkhoff (probably)10-speed that was my first drop bar bike.

My father went to the Ben Franklin's five and dime in Rocky Mount, Virginia in 1972 or 1973 to buy me a bike. Because my family was absolutely bicycle-illiterate, all we had decided was that I had to have a bike with 26 x 1 3/8-in wheels, as I had outgrown my second-hand Sears Spyder chopper-esque 3-speed with as stick shift, complete with permanently-stuck-in-high-gear adjustment and non-functional rear brake. Anyway, when he got the box home, he discovered it was missing some parts, so he took it back. They were out of bikes in that size, so he returned with what I believe to have been aKalkhoff-built "Brownie" 10-speed. Mine had Simplex Prestige derailleurs with the floppy cheap shift levers on the downtube, Altenburger Synchron sidepull brakes, cheap alloy stem, steel bars, and a hard plastic Gran Prix saddle suitable for a track, perhaps. Steel dimpled 27 x 1 1/4-in rims, cheap gumwall tires (Sempirit?), 3-piece steel nutted hubs (low flange? It's been a long time!), and a 3-pin steel cottered crankset with plastic block type pedals completed the ensemble. It was $50 new in the box, and the basic bike boom 10-speeds were around $100-125 at the time, so that tells you something about the quality. Same swaged/squashed-then-welded flat stay and fork tips treatment, same swaged seat stay tops, the same ESGE/Pletscher flat rear brake bridge (pre-drilled for the same company's rack) and I think the same headset. Does this one have the pre-drilled ESGE/Pletscher flat chainstay bridge to make it easier to fit a kickstand?

I think they built a lot of cheap bikes for companies that wanted to sell them, and my memory is that Sears sold 5-speeds with the same frame in the shade of green that is peeking through the yellow paint.

I ordinarily avoid saying harsh or critical things about other people's bikes - but as gently as possible, there were good reasons this one was at the dump. With all due respect, this bike will NEVER ride well, it will weigh a ton, and it's the equivalent of the very cheapest bicycle shaped object sold by any of the big box stores, with the benefit of decades of neglect and poor storage AND the bonus of being spray-bombed.

On the other hand, there IS a venue for bikes like this - The Clunker 100 Challenge #8 runs through July 23rd. This would earn a LOT of points in the "competition," as it was a clunker when it rolled off the assembly line, it's been repainted, it has its Simplex Delrin derailleurs with wingnuts on the front hub, few things say "clunker" quite like Altenburger brakes and squashed fork tips and stay ends - it's a natural fit!

Brotrainnm

Thank you so much for all of the information! I am completely new to this but have been reading up on simplex and the issues they had when they switched to this new "wonder plastic" for their derailleurs. I will look into that brand! Anywhere you all trust to find old bike parts for fixing stuff up.

Brotrainnm

The bike actually doesn't ride like complete ****! Luckily. I just want to clean it up so I have a bike to get back and forth to work on. My brother is hassling me about the Fuji and I had to get him off my back! O:
The photos are on my profile now as well! If some one would be so kind to dump them here.

machinist42

OP's Other Album.

(A photo of the Drive Side, (the other side with all the bits on it), would provide much more information to our viewers.)

Narhay

The green fuji in the back is a much nicer bicycle. Someone else can comment on model.

I know you have $0 into this bike but it will cost you the same amount of time and money to rebuild most bikes. I would really walk away from this one and find a better quality bike to put your efforts into.

Brotrainnm

I'll drop more Fuji pics asap. It's a 69** Royal. My brother replaced the rear derailleur and grips as well as the seat. I threw the lights on there for when I had to ride at night.
**(Made a mistake here and rattled off a number without verification) saw the sticker on the tube actually says 1769. My brother further clarified the Fuji is a royale 2 year not certain

Brotrainnm

As for money/time efforts I'm just learning about these bikes more. It's been fun for me. If the bikes a turd it's my turd unfortunately and I'll just use it until I can snag something cool enough to ride with the bois. I actually when ahead and tore it all apart and greased everything aside from the steering tube bearings. I disassembled the cassette while trying to take it off because of my inexperience. I had to use sewing thread to tie the racheting mechanism down so that I could re assemble it! That was after finding all of the balls that fell out of the bearing races. Talk about goofing up!

Brotrainnm

Fuji pics are up. It's late I'll clean it up and get better pics in the light. Also added a picture of a clown/monkey bike I just cleaned up. Had to re-spray because the factory paint had been rattle canned by some little *******(me). Buddy gave me a unicycle today as well if any of you care to see. You all have been quick and given me much to think about. Thank you again.

juvela

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the yellow machine is a Puch/Steyr product manufactured in Graz Austria for Sears & Roebuck company

it may have originally been badged as a "Free Spirit"

in case you will be working on it be aware that the steeerer is a size unique to this manufacturer of 26.0mm which means that the headset is special


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Brotrainnm

Thank you much. I was looking into kalkhoff and some of their models have similar features but theres just not much I'm finding to go on. I'll have a look at puch. I do plan on saving up and getting a better bike I much prefer the bikes where the tubes going up to the seat from the rear look like solid bars cut on a 30 degree angle. That's spicy 🥵

dedhed

That is a freewheel not a cassette.

Did you get the cotters out on the crank and regrease the bottom bracket?

Brotrainnm

Haven't pulled the crank yet. I started to but stopped. Need to wait until I have time to do it in one go. The bike is already in pieces from trying to knock off all the dust and build up. I did go ahead and pull the pedal attached to the sprocket. Help me out here when I went to my local bike shop to buy Fuji parts they called the rear sprocket set a cassette. What's the difference between a cassette and free wheel? I'm completely new.
Is it that the free wheel is the mechanism inside the cassette? And they are spoken of as two separate units event though they are attached?

RustyJames 

Freewheel vs. cassette info;

Sheldon Brown - freewheel/cassette explanation

BTW - the Sheldon Brown site has a TON of useful information.

Brotrainnm

Much appreciated 👍 Gonna check that now!

juvela

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back catalogues of Sears & Roebuck are posted online

if you would like to learn a specific model name & date for the cycle you could quickly scan them

suggest to begin with about the 1971 model year and spread out from there

you should rapidly locate the steed...


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Brotrainnm

Super duper as soon as I have it nailed down I'll report back.

Brotrainnm

So I noticed in the stickied section the catalog of bike info but could not locate Sears roebuck I'm sure I'm just over looking it right? The image searching I've done would lead me to agree it definitely looks like the free spirit. I guess someone just changed out the handlebars? The tubing's all the same. The one that I found that was very similar was from 66

dddd

Be aware that the crank cotters are hardened, though any replacements sold today typically are not.

So it is imperative not to damage the threaded studs on these cotters with excess removal force.

I would myself first heat the knuckle of the crankarm with a propane torch, hot enough to issue some smoke when the flame is pulled away, before using any hammer or press on the cotters.

The threaded studs on these bike's crankarm cotters are on the small-diameter side, and they are easily damaged during attempts at removal.

Upon re-installation, tighten the nut, then hit the other end with a hammer, then tighten some more and so on until the nut no longer turns easily.

Use 11 Gr25 1/4" steel balls on each side in lieu of any bearing retainers. The same applies to the smaller headset bearing balls, which take about 24 balls at each end of the head tube (though the original retainers have as few as 14 balls each).

For only moderate mileage, I would simply oil the bottom bracket bearings from each end of the spindle!!!
And one can usually even adjust the bottom bracket bearings with both crankarms still installed!

I have a couple of old Steyr-produced bikes, one branded Steyr and the other one branded Sears. Both really are great-riding bikes, though both benefited from installing zero-offset seatposts, longer handlebar stems and wider handlebars.

Brotrainnm

Thank you for the info! If you have any pictures of yours I'd love to see them. Want to see what it looked like new so I can decide what to do with the paint. The green underneath looks kinda cool but idk if my powder coat guy can match it or not.

dedhed

Another good source is Randy's old site that can be found in various plaes.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190509053836/https://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpeeds_1/FREE_SITE_1/FREE_SITE_INTRODUCTION.htm​​​​​​
https://cycle.haus/mytenspeeds/FREE_SITE_1/FREE_SITE_INTRODUCTION.htm]

https://cycle.haus/mytenspeeds/FREE_...TRODUCTION.htm

Brotrainnm

Paige not found ):