I have a racing/sport-touring Rene Herse for sale. It's a sweet bike, but because it doesn't have many proprietary Herse parts, it is reasonably priced..
1968 Rene Herse 700 C racing/sport touring bike:
- champagne color with gold lettering and lining, white head tube and seat tube panel, multi-colored rings separating white seat tube panel from main color. No chrome. Paint and lettering are original in good to OK shape, but with a number of chips and scratches.
Size: Seat tube: approx. 61.5 cm c-t Top tube: approx. 58 cm c-c
- Has braze-ons for cable hangers, pump, shift levers, generator (just a screw on the inside of seatstay - never been used), chainslap strap (not shown in photos, will be included with bike) - vertical drop-outs (typical Herse-style) - Herse lugs (not the less desirable "Italian"-style like many Herse racing bikes) - long-point on fork crown (rare and nice touch that had to be specifically requested)
Original components from 1968: - Maxi-Car high flange hubs, Campy straight QR levers, Mavic clincher rims (700C) - Weinmann center-pull brakes (no brazed-on pivots) - Huret shift levers - Stronglight 49D cranks and triple rings. - Lyotard pedals - Stronglight (Competition?) headset - Ideale saddle
Non-original modern "upgrades": - Bars, stem (should be Philippe), derailleurs (should have Huret Allvit), seatpost (not included, takes 26.4 mm diameter)
The bike originally was bought by a well-known French cycling journalist for his son, and I believe Herse did a slightly nicer than usual job on it.
Price: $ 2200, plus shipping. If someone is interested only in frame/fork, we can figure out something. But since most components are original, I'd prefer to keep it all together. With a few easily available components, this bike can be back to its original spec.
I can e-mail photos.
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Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/