saperry42usa

It has 26’ wheels.


How how old is the bike? How much is it worth? It has rust on the pedal cranks and the cog set and the bottom bracket.
They have it marked at $51.99 which I would say is pretty high,

juvela

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yes, high

looks like it may be one of the Murray produced examples

if this is the case its Sears item number stamped into the bottom bracket shell will be 502

alternately, it could be one of the Steyr/Puch manufactured cycles from Graz Austria in which case the Sears item identification number will begin with the prefix/code 503

appears mid-1970's or possibly a bit later


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dddd

It's worth it if the bike speaks to you loudly enough to where the cost of refurbishing it won't be an issue.

In ready-to-ride condition (if it's been that well cared for), certainly worth that price if not more.

Looks to be sized for a rider perhaps 5' to 5'7" tall.

And, that's an American-made bike, likely Murray-built but I can say it's not from Steyr (Austria).

SurferRosa

26 ft?! You're going to have a hard time finding tires in that size. But just mounting the bike will be the most difficult thing you will face.

Put this in some context, like you can't even buy three 5-liter boxes of cheap Cabernet for that price. Still, I would go with the wine.

Great pics, btw.

saperry42usa

Above are a few photos showing condition of the bike. There is a number not on the bottom bracket it is 10-77. Is that a date code anything?

juvela

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number certainly in right ballpark for a date

additional imagery confirmatory of Mur*****ss

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madpogue 

Run, don't walk... away. It's a gas-pipe step-through with cheap frame construction (note the stays/dropout) and pretty close to the cheapest, heaviest components available at the time. The rust is just a bonus.

robobike316 

I'll second the above post. There is nothing on this bike that is any good except maybe the front derailler. They were the cheapest of the cheap back then and you can do alot better for $50.

AdventureManCO 

I'm the guy putting Super Record on a Huffy and even I'll say that bike is a stretch.

Rather, for the price you are wondering about ($52), you may be able to do much, much better if given a little time and research.

Vintage Schwinn

Hey now, wait a minute, that SHIMANO SKYLARK rear derailleur is a lot better in terms of reliability and durability than the Huret Allvit, and that SKYLARK is helluva lot better than the SIMPLEX rear derailleurs that were seen on a bunch of very decent early and mid seventies Peugeot models.
Yeah, the SKYLARK may weighs about 350grams but it always provides reliable shifting under all riding conditions. That was a SHIMANO characteristic among every rear derailleur offering from the 1967 LARK model onward.

The nice European marque bikes of the early seventies had a major defect or weakness and that was that they all came with substandard European manufactured rear derailleurs. All Shimano '67 later and Maeda Suntour 1970 and later rear derailleurs , regardless of if they were the inexpensive, lowest line offering or Shimano or SUNTOUR's TOTL models.................all of them, even the Lark and Skylarks, were far superior in operational functionality, reliabilty and durability to Campy, Simplex and Huret offerings at any price. Yes, perhaps the European turd rear derailleurs weighed less but you also got LESS in overall operational quality. This is the reason that the Japanese slaughtered those three European firms in a very very short time. The Japanese rear derailleurs were light years better, and it didn't take very long for folks to realize that certain elcheapo $89 Kmart 10 speeds came with Shimano or SUNTOUR rear derailleurs that were light years better than what european made rear derailleurs that came on expensive prestigious ITALIAN, FRENCH, ENGLISH, BELGIAN, and AUSTRIAN ten speed bicycles.
...................By about 1977, SHIMANO and Maeda SUNTOUR had wiped out the Europeans as far as REAR DERAILLEURS.
Yeah sure, some people like the looks of the 2nd rate, Campagnolo equipment and its implied chic collectible prestige but from an operational and durability standpoint, everything of rear derailleurs from both SHIMANO and Maeda SUNTOUR from the Seventies is lightyears better than that era's Campy, Simplex and Huret even if its a basic Lark or Skylark. None of the European offerings outperform the Japanese rear derailleurs at any price.
(.......yeah, sure the Japanese borrowed, "stole", and comingled the best of the existing Europeans' rear derailleur designs in order to produce the best rear derailleurs in the world. )

dedhed

Worth about $3 over the scale.

John E

I bought one of those at a yard sale for $10, and kept it at work in an outdoor bike rack near the employee entrance for noon hour exercise or errand rides. I thought it would be a great theft-resistant beater, but someone eventually stole (!) it.

Schweinhund

Pretty sure it's a 1976 model. It was domestically produced. Due to it's Bicentennial heritage it may have some value to the right person.

Hummer

That is a Murray date code: October 1977.

The 1977 fall catalog: 26 Inch 10 Speed Racer with Shimano Skylark sold for $83.99.

I don't think that the value has appreciated with time.

albrt 

The co-op where I volunteer sells Free Spirits and Huffys from that era for $100 to $125, but that's in good running condition with new tires.

That's a lot of rust to deal with for a bike like that. I have a thread up right now about whether it's worth it to rehab a 70s Raleigh Sprite with about the same amount of rust, and we got that bike for free.

Fredo76

'Free Spirit' was also the name of a popular bra at the time.

sbarner 

I was thinking that I would pull that rear derailleur, the freewheel and chain and then try to hit both the banjo AND the accordion when I threw the rest in the dumpster. Those Skylarks were an excellent derailleur for cheap bikes and would withstand more abuse than Suntour units, as the latter tended to bend when the kid dropped the bike on the right side.

Adjusted for inflation, this bike would cost $415 today. You can buy a brand new, aluminum-framed, MTB-style bike with a pogo fork over at WallyMart for $128 in today's coin and I have no doubt that it will be a much, much better bike than this one ever was.

chain_whipped

During a 3 week period of our national covid holiday, I sold over 400 of these older bike boom junks. Didn't care what condition, some were new, never ridden and others, avg. condition. All needed servicing or some sort, time and money for consumables. Priced $10 to tops $30. Most at $15. Co-op's didn't want them either.

Whittling away at another 300, though most are 50's - 60's cruiser / townie type. Crap and scrap, though yes there's some for the emotional type, retro rat-rod builders, artist / lawn art whatever. Still not worth piddling with those rusty tube kickers asking question's, debating hours about spending $5. Easier to trade the heap with a scrap man and his labor.

chain_whipped

There was a time post WW2 and following 3 decades a stigma attached to Austrian goods. I'll let one do their history research and factories in Austria during ww2, and Steyr (stoy-er).

Sears branded imported bikes were from England, Austria and some from France. Many Sears (using their sporting goods branding, JC Higgins) made in Austria were noted on the headbadge. At the Sears Roebuck stores and floor models, some were offended to see they were made in Austria. It reflected enough in sales where managers had the store inventory bikes, area of the headbadge painted out.

So, laws required denoting country of origin for the buyer and Sears was sort of bending that. Eventually and to solve, marketing coined Free Spirit. It rang the notion freedom of western ideology. Generation transformation flowed to acceptance of those particular products of those former axis.