When you’re looking for a motorcycle today, you will most likely take yourself off to one or more local motorcycle dealers, look at what they have on the showroom floor, maybe take one or two for a test ride, then make your purchase.
Today, part of the process might be doing a little initial internet research, but you’d most likely go to a dealership and throw a leg over several models, before you make that final commitment. Believe it or not, lots of people in the 1950s and 1960s actually bought their motorcycles out of the good old Sears Catalog.
In 1909, Sears did advertise one motorcycle in its catalog, but motorcycles don’t seem to have been included again until 1951. Sears “Allstate” motorcycles and motor scooters were manufactured by a number of companies and re-branded for Sears. Among others, Allstate bikes came from Vespa, Cushman, and Italian maker, Gilera. Both of the Sears Allstate models on display in the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum were manufactured by Austrian company Puch.
The museum houses a 1962 Sears Allstate that is a 150 cc, fan-cooled, two-stroke motor. In 1962, about 900 of this model were manufactured for Sears.
Austria’s Puch company is perhaps best remembered for the other motorcycle seen here. This is a 1964 Sears Allstate “Twingle.” This motorcycle features a split cylinder engine with one connecting rod attached to a cast boss on the other rod, comparable to the master rods in radical aircraft engines. There is a single combustion chamber and both pistons reach top dead center at the same time. Sears imported and sold the “Twingle” from 1953 to 1970 and in all about 35,000 of these units were sold through Sears in the U.S.
Both of these motorcycles were selling in the 1960s for between $300 and $600 brand new out of the catalog. What else could you buy out of the catalogs in the 1960s? You could buy guns!
Sears sold vehicles from several manufacturers, badged with the Sears “Allstate” brand. Most Allstate models were scooters, but several motorcycles and a car were sold under the Allstate marque. Vespa and Cushman scooters are the most commonly recognized Allstate models.
Brief History of the Marque: Sears Allstate
Puch two-strokes from Austria were sold by Sears-Roebuck of Chicago from the 1950s to at least 1979 under the Sears Allstate label. Sears sold scooters built by Vespa from 1952 to 1969, as there is one advertised in their Spring ’67 catalog. They also sold Italian machines manufactured by Gilera.
Sears Allstate by Troyce Walls
VESPA ALLSTATE 125cc
788.100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1951
788.101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1952
788.102 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1952
788.103. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1953-54
788.104. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1954-55
788.94490. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1955-56
788.91191. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1956-57
788.94492. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1957-58
788.94493. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1958-59
788.94494. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1958-59
788.94495. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1960-62
788.94330 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1963
788.94331 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1964
