You Could Get Anything at Sears!

Reader Contribution by Jack Allen
Published on August 3, 2015
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It’s fall 1973.

October in Michigan is a beautiful time of year, the leaves are changing color and there’s a crisp chill to the air. The year’s first snow will come soon but for now the sunlight warms my face as I ride my bike in my yard. I am riding my bright orange Huffy with black banana seat and ape hanger handle bars. I had a motorcycle to ride yesterday but today I am back riding my Huffy. I am 9 years old and the future stretches out before me like an endless highway. The dreams and fantasies of a 9-year-old are many and varied and one of mine is to be a motorcycle racer.

I had a motorcycle — past tense — it was a 106 Sears. What’s that you say? You didn’t know Sears made motorcycles? Well actually they didn’t; they just sold motorcycles made by other companies. In this particular case I found out years later that this bike was built by Gilera. But I digress. The reason I HAD a motorcycle at this point in my life is a sort of funny story. Well, it is now. We had a neighbor and this neighbor had a son about my age. Of course we were friends, and his name was John. John had a go-cart, and I wanted a go-cart, so I bugged my Dad about getting a go-cart. In some sort of trade long forgotten my Dad acquired the 106 Sears motorcycle. I was 9 and I was not large for my age. It was a full-sized bike and this presented a problem. Dad said I could have it if I could ride it without help. That meant starting it, riding it, stopping it and getting off it without killing myself or destroying the bike.

I began the quest to ride the Sears by starting it. This wasn’t too difficult as I could leave it on the kickstand and it would fire up after 2 or 3 kicks. One condition down. The next condition would prove more challenging. I couldn’t reach the ground while straddling the bike, so I got creative and the search began for some sort of stand or elevated platform from which I would be able to get on the bike easily. Then I’d just have to get the kickstand up and then finally put it in gear and ease away with the fluid grace of Dick Mann or Steve McQueen. More on that later …

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