I wouldn't consider Lejeune as an oddball French bike. I own two, the 1973 racing model on the CR site, and a 70's era tandem with 650B tires. Lejeune and Mercier both had strong teams in the Tour de France and other European races throughout most of the 60's and 70's, featuring top riders (including Lucien van Impe for Lejeune and Raymond Poulidor for Mercier). So I would say that makes them pretty mainstream, at least in that era. Bertin and Folis had smaller racing presence, but sold a lot of bikes, both in Europe and America, in the 70's. Their were a lot of obscure French marques, though, and Yvar seems to be one of them. I'd divide the obscure French bikes into two groups. First there were the small but established manufacturers who simply never had a high enough volume to become known outside France, and whose products rarely showed up in America. Then there were the bikes sold under names like "St. Tropez, "St. Etienne" and "Polar" in the US during the bike boom. These names seem to have been made up by US marketing guys and disappeared with the end of the bike boom. No telling who actually made these.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
> In a message dated 7/23/02 5:03:39 PM Central Daylight Time,
jprice@2-10.com
> writes:
>
> > what other French bikes
> > are out there that we don't see or mention too often ?
>
> For "oddball" French bikes, I'd love to find a Lejeune. I don't see
Mercier,
> Stella, Urago, Bertin, or Follis very often either.
>
> Greg Gagliano
> Olathe, KS