One from Germany

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Joined
Dec 27, 2006
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Location
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I found a guy here in Houston who had a bunch of bikes for sale on CL. He said he was buyinig them from auctions around town - mainly storage places selling off stored items when the bills weren't paid. So I ran over to his place and checked out what he had for sale. He had a couple of kids bikes, a couple of road bikes, a couple of mountain bikes, and this 3 speed women's bike that I bought.

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The sticker on it says "Made in Western Germany" and it has a lugged frame or at least the neck.

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The neck has a stick on head badge which just says "EUROPE" on it, and a larger sticker on one of the tubes says "Classic".

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It has a "Torpedo" shifter and 3 speed rear end - which look a lot like a SA - only it has no coaster brake built in.


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It has a few rusty spots on the frame here and there - like it was ridden on a salty street or sat outside around a salty street at some point. Otherwise, it appears to be in fairly decent shape and the guy let me have it for $20, so I couldn't pass it up. Heck, it even came with a bell.

I just got it home so I need to play with it some to see if it rides okay, shifts okay, stops, etc.

So I now have a new toy to play with - as if I needed one, haha.

** I just ran across this posting on the internet related to the Sachs Torpedo rear hub. According to this, it was a good find ...**

In the late 1950s, the best post-war three speed was born, the new Sachs Torpedo with the red shifter. When I was young, everybody had it. There was no bike shop without spare parts for it. It was stronger and more reliable than any planetary gears hub in current production. Sachs was able to sell these for an amazingly long time with the cheap junk bikes of the 1960/70s. In the last production years, this made funny bikes. In the "great era of bike-junk", the rear hub would have been able to outlast five bikes. Sachs could do this for the legendary name, most people who bought junk bikes still wanted a Torpedo hub.

On bulk rubbish days, there was an easy rule: "If the rear hub of a trashed bike is a Sachs Torpedo or Renak, take it. If it is Sachs Komet, Sachs Jet, Sturmey Archer, or Shimano, leave it."
 
I like the fenders, chain guard and sprocket.

That black spray paint is weird.
 
I'm not sure why someone only sprayed the neck. It was almost like they were trying to highlight the lugged neck or maybe highlight how fancy it was done.

Based on the stickers on it, including a head badge that was a sticker, I would say it was a cheap model, but maybe some European forum members may know for sure.
 
RatRodDad said:
** I just ran across this posting on the internet related to the Sachs Torpedo rear hub. According to this, it was a good find ...**

In the late 1950s, the best post-war three speed was born, the new Sachs Torpedo with the red shifter. When I was young, everybody had it. There was no bike shop without spare parts for it. It was stronger and more reliable than any planetary gears hub in current production. Sachs was able to sell these for an amazingly long time with the cheap junk bikes of the 1960/70s. In the last production years, this made funny bikes. In the "great era of bike-junk", the rear hub would have been able to outlast five bikes. Sachs could do this for the legendary name, most people who bought junk bikes still wanted a Torpedo hub.

On bulk rubbish days, there was an easy rule: "If the rear hub of a trashed bike is a Sachs Torpedo or Renak, take it. If it is Sachs Komet, Sachs Jet, Sturmey Archer, or Shimano, leave it."
Hey, I was going to post that!
Well, if you even want to sell the three speed hub, I'll probably be interested.
 
Looks like a typical German 70's womans bike. Add a luggage-carrier and a wire-basket to the rear, and you won't be able to tell it apart from any other German bike :lol: Don't get me wrong, I love those bikes, I had a guys-version of it for years, WITH basket! (I think I have a thing with baskets ever since E.T... :lol: )
But I never saw one around here (we live very close to the German border) with a 'Europe'-sticker on it. Must have been meant for the overseas market.
 
Might have been sold in a military PX/BX they sell some odd stuff. I have several bikes similar to that but mine are newer and have the Shimano hubs. I know at least 2 of them came from over seas...they have the holes in the fenders for skirt protectors :?

Aaron 8)
 
Thanks for the input. I aired up the tires today and took it for a quick spin to see how it rode.

It rode pretty good although the fenders on it are a bit rattley. I know the bolt that bolts the rear fender to the frame is missing, and one of the other bolts that holds the fender to one of the braces is loose. Otherwise, it rode pretty good.

That's the first time I've ridden a bike with that type of rear hub / shifter. I am used to my Shimano nexus grip shift where you ratchet it one way to go up gears and the other to go down. On this one you pull the arm the same way each time to ratchet it through the gears and it eventually comes back to the same gear again. So that took a bit of playing before I figured out how it worked.

The other thing is that I can shift my Shimano on the fly - while I'm pedaling, but on this one you had to stop pedaling temporarily while you shifted the gears and then go back to pedaling once it shifted.

Mastershake916, I'm not sure what I will eventually do with it, but if I decide to part it out rather than fix it up, I will get with you to see if you are still interested in the rear wheel / hub.

Oh, one other interesting thing about the bike. The frame is a little rusty as you can see in the photos, but the rims on the bike look brand new - little or no rust anywhere. Plus they aren't smooth - and instead have little dimples in the metal. Not sure if that helps the stopping power, or why they were made that way versus being smooth like most I see. One more curiousity. See the pics below.

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The dimples were SOP in a feeble attempt to increase braking power when wet...I guess. I have seen that on many bikes, I know Motobecane used it on some of there lower end models. You will only see it on steel rims AFAIK.

Aaron 8)
 
The rims say "Schurmann - Made in Germany" on them, so I guess they either came on the bike or they were swapped out at some point before it made it here to the US.

I guess now I can ride it faster since it has increased stopping power from those dimpled rims! :D

Oh wait a minute, that would take more effort on my part ... never mind.
 
let a german speak:
the rear end is very good. sachs-torpedo hubs are made for eternity. too sad they aren´t produced anymore.
but i have never heard of a company called europe.
Made in Western Germany
:lol: > the frame must have been pruduced 1989 at the latest.
that´s all i can say about this bike except for: have fun with it
 
Nickname said:
let a german speak:
the rear end is very good. sachs-torpedo hubs are made for eternity. too sad they aren´t produced anymore.
but i have never heard of a company called europe.
Made in Western Germany
:lol: > the frame must have been pruduced 1989 at the latest.
that´s all i can say about this bike except for: have fun with it
Well SRAM bought out sachs, so they're still making hubs, even if not the same model.
 
Nickname, I assumed the same thing as you about when the bike was built. Since "the wall" came down in 1989 it must have been produced that year or before.

After that there would have been no reason to put Built in "West" Germany on the sticker. It would have just said Built in Germany.
 
exactly...
"i´ve been looking for freedom, i´ve been waiting so lo^ong..." :mrgreen:
 

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