Underblog Rides Again

Seven Hour Romance

This morning, I knew little about Puch motorcycles. I knew that they were distributed by Sears under the Allstate name, and that they were cute. I knew from Puch mopeds that the factory was in Austria. But a listing in the eBay "Other Makes" pages this morning caught my eye: a 250cc Puch Allstate listed for $162.70. I reckoned I had an edge on the bidding because the seller was local and would not have to pay for shipping. On a $10,000 bike, shipping hardly matters, but in the bottom-feeding world of low-end vintage motorcycles, it can be determinative. Heck, anything that runs is worth $500, and so I quickly entered a bid.

In the meantime, I learned a lot about Puch's. There is a dealer in Milwaukee that specializes in Puch parts. This meant I could replace the missing Sears tank badge on my new ride. All the cleaned up models I found online were of the earlier, round-tank variety. They are cuter. Still the price was right. The bidding rose to $204.50.

Mechanically, the Puch's were unique. Moderately mechanically-inclined folk will notice right away that the carburettor is not where it is "supposed" to be. Instead, it hangs off the side of one of the cylinders. And therein is the great mechanical mystery: Puch 175's and 250's were two-stroke "twingles," ie the combustion chamber was shared by the two cylinders. The pistons were slightly out of synch, the rear one mounted on an eccentric. The result was a slightly more fuel-efficient but conspiculously underpowered machine. Puch owners were proud of their little machines, but they acknowledged that the charm was less in the barn-burning speed than in the bikes' dependability. I found a Yahoo! group dedicated to Sears bikes and quickly signed up.

I was not planning to become a Puch enthusiast. But enough of my friends talk about taking up motorcycling that I thought a good starter bike for under $500 would be too good to pass up. Evidently, some other people had the same idea. About an hour before the auction was to end, the price had gone above my bid. Fearing a poacher, I entered another bid $25.00 higher than my initial limit. It was the winning bid for all of 20 minutes. As it turns out, not only was one person more interested than I, two were!

I confess I was a little disappointed to "lose" the auction, but the grapes were probably sour. I mean, I gained 400 bucks by not spending it: next week, I'll have 400 more bucks to play with, and a bit more space in the garage as well.