# I Can't Stop Laughing



## GTs58 (Dec 2, 2022)

At the text in this Sears ad. Squeeze the hand grips for stopping? And they're down side up! A whole lot of something going on here!


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## Rollo (Dec 3, 2022)

... My two brother's and I all got one of these for Christmas in '67 ... wish I still had it ... It shifted "slickety split"!


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## Fritz Katzenjammer (Dec 3, 2022)

Both brakes on the rear wheel... oh yeah, thats a good idea.


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## Grey Ghost (Dec 3, 2022)

Sears marketing was pretty silly but it was a more modern approach than Schwinn was using.
You could tell that the writers had often never ridden a bike in their life, or at least didn’t have a good grasp on the subject.

Some things never change.

Many Sears musclebikes of this era had dual rear brakes.
I had a 1968 Spyder 10 speed with them.
They didn’t stop the bike very well but you could skid your rear tire better than most, which might briefly earn you the title of the neighborhoods longest skid mark.

They became one of the urban legend myths of the time. The groupthink rational was that if a rear brake failed, you wouldn’t be stuck with only the front brake like a conventional bike, and “flip yourself” over the handlebars.

This was topped only by the urban legend of “stripping the gears” by forcefully moving a shifter without pedaling. None of us ever saw a freewheel that had the teeth ripped off but many were sure that it could happen.

I had rams horn bars on mine which weren’t as crazy as these.

Only steering wheels were more uncomfortable and scary to use than some of these Murray units.
Murray put all kinds of weird handlebars on their musclebikes. Most sucked ergonomically and were terrible for popping wheelies, let alone safe operation. They did give you a lot of real estate for glitter tape though.

Interestingly, in my part of the country at least, glitter tape and glitter seats were very cool. Glitter grips, which had been around for a while, were viewed as pretty old school and lame. Same for streamers and horns. Only the really little kids were still using those. If you were older than 9 or 10 you wouldn’t be caught dead with those toys on your bike.


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## Skiroule69 (Dec 12, 2022)

I get a kick out of the 'candy apple' yellow. There were many 'candy' colors in the '60s, but only one 'candy apple', and it was RED!


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## Grey Ghost (Dec 19, 2022)

Forgot about these tires, I thought Grasshoppers were the only colored rubber back then.

Kinda digging the all white frames and hardware.


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