Jan Heine posted: Clearly, the French cyclotourists considered the person who put the bike together, who made sure fenders, lights, racks, derailleurs and all worked together, the constructeur. For them, the frame is only one part of the bike, maybe more important than fenders, wheels or other parts, but not by that much.
My question is if I build a rando frame for a customer but he or she puts the parts on, are they the constructeur? I believe what you posted is historically correct but it sounds a little pathetic that the guy that screws on the fenders gets credit for the bike. This doesn't seem consistant with your earlier postings about how cyclotourists saw the bike as a whole rather than a frame with parts hung on it. If the frame wasn't designed and built to accomodate the appropriate parts to create the cyclotourist whole, try as the wanna be constructeur might the whole package won't come together.
Curt Goodrich
Minneapolis, MN