You can - get an Alex Singer. It comes in a huge box, you straighten the bars, raise the seat and attach the pedals. Then you ride off into the sunset...
Jan Heine, Seattle
>To this full-time bike mechanic, it would seem that
>one thing hasn't changed in fifty-plus years--you
>cannot buy in one box or from one source all of the
>parts to make the best non-racer's road bicycle.
>David Feldman
>Vancouver, WA
>--- Jan Heine <heine@mindspring.com> wrote:
>> First of all, Herse, Singer et al. were not
>> framebuilders. The French
>> distinguish between a framebuilder (constructeur des
>> cadres) and a
>> "constructeur," which means a builder of bikes. You
>> can't order a
>> Singer frame and fork - you order a bike. Nothing
>> wrong with a
>> framebuilder, like Bianco, but they won't made you a
>> randonneur or
>> camping bike. If you are a racer, you go to a
>> framebuilder, if you
>> are a cyclotouriste, you go to a "constructeur."
>>
>> The philosophy between Herse and Singer differs.
>> Herse got his start
>> with components, so those always were his hallmark
>> (see the bike in
>> Rivendell Reader No. 26 for a good selection of
>> them). Singer made
>> bikes, and modified components only where he saw it
>> necessary.
>> Stronglight cranks were perfectly fine, so Singer
>> never made his own
>> cranks, but he did offer his own BB with cartridge
>> bearings (which
>> outlasts anything available then). He did make
>> brakes, stems (any
>> custom French builder had to have his own stems),
>> front derailleurs
>> (most then-current designs didn't work on large
>> tooth differences
>> like the common 46/32), seatposts (a bit of frippery
>> here - they had
>> internal clamping). All French "constructeurs" made
>> racks, of course.
>>
>> Singer is not dissimilar to other constructeurs in
>> the parts he
>> offered - they all made and modified stuff, some
>> more, some less.
>> Most of the complex stuff (machine work for BB
>> spindles, casting,
>> forging) was subcontracted. Levallois-Perret was the
>> metal-working
>> center of Paris, with the CitroÎn factory and many
>> small custom car
>> shops (as Californians would call them).
>>
>> I have a wonderful women's bike by Ondet (Lyon).
>> Under the
>> chainguard, it has a custom-made front derailleur
>> (similar to Herse's
>> model), for the half-step gearing. You couldn't do
>> that elegantly
>> with mass-produced parts, so M. Ondet made his
>> own... (The bike will
>> be in Rivendell Reader No. 27 or 28.)
>>
>> Of course, all of this came about because of
>> randonneuring. You
>> simply cannot build a good randonneur bike by just
>> making a frame and
>> fork and then have the customer worry about the
>> racks and fenders.
>> That is why there are so few good randonneur bikes
>> found on this
>> continent, with the exception of Mariposa, who work
>> in the French
>> way. (Or you can become the constructeur and specify
>> every smallest
>> measurement and detail to the framebuilder, and then
>> hope you (or
>> they) didn't overlook something when the time comes
>> to put it all
>> together. It's a nightmare - I have done it. After
>> the second try,
>> the bike is 95% right!)
>>
>> For the question of who made the stuff - I hope to
>> have an interview
>> in my newsletter at some point that will elaborate
>> on that. The
>> Japanese Herse book shows how the Herse stems were
>> made from extruded
>> bar stock at the Herse shop. A lot of drilling and
>> filing! I am told
>> odd-length cranks were made that way by Herse as
>> well, but the
>> standard stuff was forged and machined somewhere
>> else. TA made some
>> of the later chainrings, but the early ones with the
>> triangular tooth
>> profile appear to have been made on more primitive
>> equipment,
>> probably in the Herse shop. There is a photo in the
>> Japanese book
>> with what appear to be blank chainrings (no holes
>> cut yet) on the
>> wall.
>>
>> Jan Heine, Seattle
>> _______________________________________________
>> Classicrendezvous mailing list
>> Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> >
>http://www.bikelist.org/mailman/listinfo/classicrendezvous
>
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
>http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com