Hello Jan and Curt,
After several reconfig's of my Herse's accessories, prying eyes can see wires but when it was totally original wires were not seen.
As far as the remote, I have a Sanyo (from the Herse shop no less) BB generator on mine. The remote while pictured in the catalog was not ordered by me ( I overlooked it) was routed in the catalog through the seattube with a top tube internal brake cable reinforcement of Herse design (used on the in and out of my top tube). Very cool.
The sans fils style of generator is cool and I have the pleasure of a demontable frame with pressure sensitive contact at the split in the downtube. The front lamp wires are not exposed when the enter the front tubular steel rack as well.
In our shop we routinely run wiring through the frame, fenders and racks for a clean look but you have to start from scratch to get it as slick as the Herse sans fils style. Toei seems to do a good job. Of note most Miyata Touring bikes our shop received were pre wired like this!
Very Slick, I like um like this.
Yours in Cycling,
Gilbert Anderson
North Road Bicycle Company 519 W. North St. Raleigh, NC 27603 USA Toll Free Ph: 800\u2022321\u20225511 Local Ph: 919\u2022828\u20228999 E-mail: cyclestore@aol.com
In a message dated 4/24/03 9:30:46 PM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
<< Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 12:32:54 -0700
From: Jan Heine <heine@mindspring.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Was Toei, now generator wiring
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Curt,
Not sure how generator wiring can be more concealed than on a René
Herse with "eclairage sans fil" (where the generator wiring is routed
through the headset via carbon brushes)? Can you explain?
The reason the French concealed the wires was that it looked cleaner,
and was less prone to damage from getting entangled in stuff.
Many French, then and now, transported their bikes by train, where
they'd be handled by railway employees, hung in a baggage car, etc.
In fact, Ernest Csuka complained how they bent his handlebars on his
last trip to the Alps.
Jan Heine, Seattle
Curt Goodrich wrote:
Most notably, Toei goes to greater lengths to conceal generator wiring than
the originals. Why? I don't know but I bet he gets off on it. >>