I know its a STEYR, but thats about it!!

[inRUSTweTRUST]

I came up on this beauty, my neighbor's mom had it out on trash day...

It has these special decals on the downtube that commemorate the Olympics...

and the hub is engravedwith : "STYRIA 3-GANG | Made in Austria | 69"

I thought maybe the bike was a special edition Olympic bike for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, but after reading up on it a little bit I guess this was a popular seller at Sears during the mid 70s.


Any help on this would be great! Im looking to bring it back to life...

 

[SSG]

Some of the hardware on these bikes (headset, bottom bracket) is odd sized, but its not really a huge deal.

 

[NLCTVWguy]

The bike is older than 1980s. I've had 2 different but similar bikes with the Olympic rings on them, built in Germany.

One was badged as an Olympic and the other I can't remember at the moment. Something implying royalty.... the bikes were weird but seemed well built.

The hub is probably giving you the correct date, 1969. Bikes after 1971 were required to use reflector pedals. Those of course could be changed but they look original. Actually look just like the Schwinn "large diamond" block pedals, which were made by Union, in Germany. Schwinn ones were all for 1-pc cranks so 1/2" shafts, but yours are 9/16 shafts on cottered 3-pc cranks.

Steyr was a sister company to Puch, which made road bikes and mopeds, as well as other small motorcycles for the European market. You've probably figured out that "3-Gang" means 3 gears... I don't know anything about these Austrian hubs other than that they're sometimes seen on Sears-branded bikes. They seem similar to a Sturmey but I've never had one apart.

I like that labyrinth headbadge. I'd say clean it up, throw some tires on it, and ride it or sell it.

--Rob

 

[Jwaldburger]

This bike is a 1964 Steyr, the rings were the Olympic rings from the Olympics in Austria in 1964

 

[rickpaulos]

Sears did have Steyr build a lot of bikes but the Sears sold bikes usually had the Sears' names on them. Free Spirit, Ted Williams, JC Higgins, Sears or FS Elite. This photo is of a Sears JC Higgins branded ladies Styer built 3 speed but it has all straight frame tubes which was very common for Sears bikes.

Many of Sears sold products had a supplier code as part of the serial number or part number. The bike suppliers were 502~505.

I doubt if the ops Steyr was sold by Sears but that only leaves 999,999 other possible stores that could have sold it.