70's Sears Free Spirit Step through 10 speed (August 2011)

Make: Sears

Model: Free Spirit

Year:  1970s

Obtained: Fathers Day 2011

Found: Good Will Outlet

Paid: $9.95

What was I thinking?  I found a bike so crappy it wasn't even good enough for regular Goodwill it was banished to the Goodwill outlet!  When your (then) wife says here's $20 go have a nice father's day and you decided "hmm maybe I can find a bike for this amount"  then Goodwill outlet is a place to look.

So how does a bike qualify as not good enough for Goodwill?  how does it get to the point that it has be sent down to the thrift store minor leagues?

• "Gas pipe"  steel tubing
• Hideous baby poo brown color
• Rakish handlebar angle
• Widespread rust
• One Piece Astuluba type crankset

The rust on the chain was so bad that it was seized into one sold piece.  When I went to push it toward the cash registers the rear wheel didn't turn it just skidded along the floor.  It was actually a miracle this thing didn't have a stuck stem or seat post.  This bike reminded me of a rule that I started out with looking at old bikes "buy something you would enjoy owning when your done with it", I definitely broke that rule with this bike.  After I got done moaning about department store 10 speeds I took stock;  its a Sears bike and probably 10 times the quality of the current crop of bikes from Wally world, it had a (mostly) decent set of components, the bar tape was surprisingly in mint condition and I had enough bulk parts and items floating around in the parts bin that I could rehab this on the cheap and sell it at a likewise "priced to move" amount.  I was also reminded by the wise Hugh that I was keeping a bike out of the waste stream and making it useable again.

In after stripping the bike down I realized I had the following issues to address:

1. The rear derailleur was rusty, crusty and broken, fortunately I had a brand new Shimano Tourney RD that I got on sale to replace it with.  I think I paid as much for it as did for this whole bike LOL
2. The rear cassette it was rusted solid so I dropped the pie plate and went with a six speed FW I had in the parts bin.  An upgrade to 12 speeds! 
3. Even after a thorough wash and wax the rear chain stays were very scratched up so that needs to be addressed.  There's patina and then there's crappy looking- nuff said.
4. The tires were dry rot city and normally I would just replace them with new ones on a rebuild but to save money I used some lightly used specialized tires I had salvaged off another bike.

This project reinforced the value of salvaging parts that are in decent condition, they might be useful later.  In addition to the salvaged items mentioned above I also used a chain with very little wear to replace the rope of rust this thing came with.

I am usually in the "clean up the paint as much as possible but leave it original"  camp but A) this is a Sears Free Spirit and not exactly a collectable and B) as mentioned above parts of the bike were scratched to heck and hideous.  So in this case I didn't hesitate to whip out my old friend Mr. Rustoleum and use it on the chainstays and seat-post "lug". With a new RD, new Freewheel and some paint it looked quite a bit better (relatively speaking that is).

In conclusion I broke alot of the guidelines I have for refurbishing old bikes with this project but in a way it was kind of fun to work within the constraints of finding a bike on the cheap and fixing it up with parts I had on hand and at least breaking even after the sale.  And to top it off the young man who came and bought it for his girlfriend seemed genuinely pleased with his find.

That said I don't seen another Free Spirit in my future ;-).  In the words of the venerable Linda Richman  "the Free Spirit is neither Free nor particularly spirited...discuss ".

Ride.Smile.Repeat