Joined
·
1,033 Posts
Reading Dutch's post about his new vintage helmet brought back memories of lusting over the motorcycles that were in the Sears and Roebucks and Montgomery Ward catalogs. They were usually made by European manufacturers. Benelli comes to mind for Monkey Wards. Sears sold bikes made by Puch, and a couple Italian makers. They were only a couple hundred bucks. However that was a small fortune for a 15 year old boy back in the late 50's and early 60's. Anyone remember dreaming about owning one of them? Of course when we got a job and could afford a bike, Triumph, BSA, and Norton were the bikes we really wanted. Yamaha came out with a 80cc two stroke in the early/mid sixties. It sold for 450.00. When the Japanese bikes came over that was the beginning of the so called stealerships. Not all were, but quite a few were just interested in the quick buck and were not really motorcyclists. Before then motorcycle dealers were owned by motorcyclists that usually rode their bikes to work.