Louis and Singer buffs,
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> I have some closeup pics of the lugs on the Singer that is on ebay if anyone is interested. I'm not smart enough to put them on a website, so email me and I'll forward them to you. There is more small scrapes and marks on this frame than I would have expected by the description. And, the pinstriping around the lugs is definitely hand painted--looks like the painter had too much coffee that morning. Lou Deeter, Orlando FL
The paint on Singers is never all that great, especially in comparison to what American restorers (JB, CyclArt, Mr Baylis, et.al, if there are others of this remarkable caliber...) can do. It is passable over all and the pinstriping is definitely not always even or clean. The charm of these bikes is, to my mind, the simple fact that they are not frames with parts added but built _with_ the parts very specifically oriented towards the bike's purpose. In the case of the present eBay-Singer the example is not well-taken since it lacks the carriers, mudguards, lights, generators, internal wiring, and the braze-ons that make for the best of these bikes. The French, as Jan Heine can explain far better than me, make a distinction between frame builders and "constructeurs", the latter building only whole bikes. Truly it is a gestalt that is prized---and while Waterford uses this term to refer to their notion of overall design, when you see a Singer, Herse, or Mariposa (or others of this very special ilk), you get a clear idea of what this would mean. Paris-Brest-Paris bikes in the old days forbade clamp-on parts which meant that braze-ons were done for nearly everything imaginable. Anyway, a racer style fenderless Singer is a really beautiful bike but not to my eye allllll that special in comparison to others. Pinstriping on both my 700c Audax and my 650B Singers is only fair...but the ride and the workmanship...oooolala! For a "race" bike/ten-speed/all over bike I'd rather have a Sachs/Baylis/Rivendell/Your Favorite...the Singer is not really in this league, imho.
Douglas Brooks
Canandaigua, NY