Sears Free Spirit Bicycle
July 28, 20221967 Schwinn Slik Chik
April 21, 2023Regis was referred to us through a friend who saw us featured on Good Day Tampa Bay with Charley Belcher. He brought a top of the line Vintage Peugeot PX10, in to us at the end of May 2020. He wanted a full restoration including re-chroming of the rusty parts. This bike was extremely special to Regis, as he bought it in the summer of 1967 when he returned from serving in the 1st Infantry Division of the Army. It took him a long time to save up the money, but he did, and he purchased it as a present for himself for $157.00 from the Central Bike Shop in New York City. He took the bike with him throughout his deployments while serving at Fort Dix in New Jersey and many other places. It literally sat for many years throughout his travels. The bike was very sentimental to Regis so he wanted it to look just like he bought it when it was new. It was a tall order, because many parts had to be sourced and the chrome parts had to be sent to Spacecoast Plating in Melbourne, Florida for the re-chroming. It took us until the end of July 2020 just to work up the initial estimate, after completing the research and determining where to source all the needed parts. Once Regis approved the estimate, we started purchasing all of the very hard to find parts on Ebay, at swap meets, and various other places. We had the decal set custom made to look original from an online vendor. Noel did all the disassembly, sanding, priming, and painting. He even polished some of the chrome himself to get it just right. It was truly a labor of love for Noel, and it turned out to be absolutely beautiful! He finally finished it for Regis’ 77th birthday in December 2022, just before Christmas. Regis said he was overjoyed and that he planned to hang it on his wall to remind him of the many memories that he had with the bicycle. It felt so good to do something wonderful for one of our beloved Vietnam Veterans.