Catalog Bikes are a thing in the vintage motorcycle collector world. Those of us who grew up before the endless internet was in our pockets or our hands 18 hours a day know what I’m talking about. This 1967 Montgomery Ward Riverside 175 Scrambler is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Clintonville, Wisconsin, and the seller is asking $1,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!
Our local chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA), the Viking Chapter, has a “Mail-Order Motorcycles” theme this year, and I’m looking forward to it more than most. Maybe because I may be showing the ’66 Mattel Stallion chrome bike there, unless I buy this Wards Riverside 175 before then. I’ve never owned a catalog or mail order motorcycle, but I grew up dreaming about them in Sears, Wards, and Pennys catalogs since I was a tiny tot. Riverside was Montgomery Ward’s (or Wards, as we always said) brand, like Sears had Allstate, and even JCPenny (Pennys) had a few bikes, mostly mopeds or scooters. Wards sold the Riverside line of rebadged Benellis between the late 1950s and late 1960s.
A scrambler motorcycle is my favorite type, maybe because I grew up outside of a city with gravel roads and trails everywhere. The seller bought this bike to be a fixer-upper and they got it running, but it needs a bit more work. What work it still needs is a mystery as that’s all they say in the ad. Sadly, there are only three (vertical!) photos, too, so it’s not too well-represented in the listing. I don’t understand why sellers don’t load as many photos as they can; it doesn’t cost any more to do that.
The photo above is not a photo of the bike for sale, it’s one of two that I found on the entire internet. The seller’s motorcycle, which is actually a rebadged Benelli 175 made for Montgomery Ward, looks like a museum piece compared to the rusty hulk above. So that’s good. And $1,500 isn’t a bad price, but buyers will have to find out more about it by calling the phone number in the listing. I did find a listing for a similar-looking 1965 Benelli/Riverside 175 Scrambler here, but from what I can find, Benelli didn’t offer a Riverside 175 in 1965, just in 1966 and 1967.
They (Benelli/Riverside) also offered a street version with similar specs. The engine is a Benelli 175-cc single, and we know it runs, so that’s good. Parts and Riverside-exclusive badges and things like that might be hard to find, but Benelli 175 scrambler items are probably not much easier to find. Are any of you into catalog bikes? If so, which ones have you had?
This is a really neat find. You used to he able to get almost anything from Montgomery Ward back then. I know of someone that bought a brand new garden tractor complete with a mower deck and a snowblower attatchment from them back around the late 60’s. I’m not surprised Wards sold motorcycles too. It would be really nice to see this thing restored to factory original if at all possible. But even just to get it running and riding would be great.
Perfect 1st bike for anyone. Cool find Scotty 😎
Cool find. I use to drool over the Sears Allstate bikes every time my parents took us to Sears. Begged Pop for several years to buy me one, but he never did. When I got older he gave me the cash to go buy a motorcycle. Ended up with a BSA Lightning 650 as my first bike. Kick started my life long passion with motorcycles.
The very first Motorcycle I had was a Sears 50cc ( At the time you did not need a license to ride anything under 70cc ) from there to Suzuki, to a BSA, to a Triumph, then a Harley Sportster in 1985 and now a 1973 Harley Davidson Fx Shovelhead ( Ill never sell )
Thankfully, the staff is featuring more of Scottys finds, you just never know with this guy. Not many Monkey Wards in the Beer City, and if you did see one, it was usually followed by the tell tale cloud of smoke usually Asian or Italian, we laughed, THIS is what is offered overseas? Replace our Big Twins or Limeys? HA! Well, they showed us, but it took a long time to win us Yanks over. 1969 changed everything with the 750 Honda, these were merely toys nobody wanted. There were much better enduros that weren’t sloppy oil dripping messes. Clin-ton-ville, you say? Home of 4 wheel drive, that’s right, and I like the Scrambler too, even though, my back hurts just looking at it. Great find.
HoA :
Leave it to you to go all ‘Monkey Wards” I was waiting. Good job. May have to get my ’82 KZ250 out and take a spin :) It’s not my back…its the belt drive and the fact i wouldnt dare take it on the freeway! I might get blown over!
175 cc… about 10.7 cu.in
Thanks for catching that, Raoul-F!
I have a couple of Catalog Rides.
1 is a 1964 Montgomery Ward Riverside moped, made by Motobecane.
And number 2 is a 1962 Sears Allstate Compact, made by Puch.
Not sure how they ended up in Saskatchewan?
Scotty, I agree – this would make a wonderful addition to your collection.
Looks like it’s not too far away and the price seems great for the condition.
Cool bike, I always checked them out in the catalogs. But it’s MONKEY Wards.
The very first Motorcycle I had was a Sears 50cc ( At the time you did not need a license to ride anything under 70cc ) from there to Suzuki, to a BSA, to a Triumph, then a Harley Sportster in 1985 and now a 1973 Harley Davidson Fx Shovelhead ( Ill never sell )