Just a quick note: I will place another order for New Cycling's René Herse book from Japan, if I can get 10 or so people interested. So far, I have 3...
Price is $ 94 (including translation of 3 chapters) plus $ 5 s&h per order
Also available is "Special Made Cycles Review" for $ 43, which includes many photos of the various Japanese custom bikes, from French-style Toei to ultramodern whoknowswhat, with a few Herse and Singer, plus Italian beauties (De Rosa, etc.) thrown in for good measure. 1 page per bike, about 150 pages, mostly B&W (but unfortunately not quite as sharp as the stunning Herse book), so you get about 150 amazing, cool, desirable, or just plain weird bikes.
Also available are hardback reprints of "Le Monde de Daniel Rebour" (3 books, on very nice paper, but unfortunately uncoated, thus the drawings don't reproduce quite as crisp as one would like). The reprint of "Le Monde de Daniel Rebour" available from Chuck Schmidt is vol. 1. These are about $ 45 each.
Let me know if interested.
(My recommendation: The Herse book is a must if this type of stuff interests you. The Special Made Cycles Review is very cool, too. The Rebour books are like the Data Book - without explanations, it is hard to figure out what is what, and the image quality isn't so great that it is worth it for the drawings alone.)
Jan Heine, Seattle
P. S.: For those not familiar with the Herse book book: The book has three parts: The first shows on 111 pages, about 54 René Herse bikes in gorgeous color photos, spanning the the mid-1940s to the 1970s, including several tandems and a triplet. Each bike is shown in a large side view and 5-6 smaller detail photos.
The second part is a reprint of all four catalogs René Herse produced: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The former three are full of Rebour drawings, the latter is photos.
Finally, on 137 pages, there are articles (in Japanese, but I had three chapters translated) on René Herse, construction methods, etc., with numerous B&W photos. The photos illustrate the construction methods and are extremely interesting - if you wonder how an Herse stem is made, you will find out.
It is a stunning production, glossy paper, perfect photo reproduction, the works.