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Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 22:24:39 -0400
From: "Jamie Swan" <jswan@optonline.net>
To: classicrendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, Paul Lee <plee@aeroflex.com>
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Hi gang, Wow; close call on Peter Naiman almost bailing on Larz! Peter; my apologies for not contacting you about my decision not to be a vendor this year. I didn't have enough stuff to make it worth while. I have enjoyed participating in your show the previous 3 years. You do a great job and your show is a cornerstone of the vintage lightweight collecting

world. I am glad that you are going to press on. Thank you for your efforts.

List member Paul Lee asked me to tell you the story of how he came own 3 Raymond Valance bicycles. A woman came to my shop a couple months ago and gave me a number of cycling books. Among them was the 1949 Daniel Rebour book and a French history of the bicycle published in the late 19th century and signed by the author. She asked if I new anyone who might like some old bicycles.

Apparently she was born in Paris in the late 40's when her (American) parents where living there. Her father was employed by the American government to help implement the Marshall Plan. His job was to read newspapers and report on political trends (a spy!). During their time there they fell in love with cyclo-touring. They had custom bicycles built in Paris by a Raymond Valance. Later they were able to buy a track tandem from a man who had ridden it in international competition representing England. They took the tandem to Valance and had it converted for touring.

The woman's father recently passed away and she was looking for a good home for the bikes. I offered to sell them for her. I'm sure that these bikes would have done well on ebay but it would have been a big project for me and Paul was in the right place at the right time to take

the whole package. Along with the bikes was a group of papers; receipts from Valance, notes on construction details and negatives for photographs of the bikes in use in France.

The bikes are very cool. Like Paul, my knowledge of this vintage is limited. I'll let Paul fill you in on the juicy details but I will tell you that the men's single bike has the French equivalent of a Cinelli bivalent (sp?) rear hub (J.Moyne?) and what appears to be a custom stem engraved with the original owner's name.

The men's single bike is clearly the pick of the litter. Paul never sells anything but I am encouraging him to part out the woman's bike and

sell off the tandem to recoup some of his investment. In my opinion the woman's (mixte) single is not a candidate for restoration. I suppose that I have driven another nail in that coffin because I took the saddle

off it as my commission. I will be listing it on ebay.

Here is the url for one of the photos of the men's single when it was new: http=//homepage.mac.com/jamie_swan/valance1.jpg

Here is the url for a photo of the saddle from the woman's single: http=//homepage.mac.com/jamie_swan/saddle_whole.jpg