Hi Anthony,
Thanks for the info. So in the very least, Ateliers de la Rive owned the Duri-Fort name. More likely, Duri-Fort became Vitus, and the name Duri-Fort was handed down to lesser tubing over time - the pre-war stuff cannot have been seamed hi carbon steel, because the wall thicknesses must have been a lot thinner to be considered good tubing... At least in 1945, Vitus offered quality tubing down to 4/10 mm. But of course, they may have learned something during the war they didn't know before...
I looked up the technical trials info (VBQ Vol. 1, No. 4), and it just says "French tubing" for the 1936 Reyhand, no info on which brand. So there is no indication that Duri-Fort was used in the trials. In fact, the Duri-Fort ads don't say so, and probably would have, if their tubing had been used in the trials.
I believe that "Ateliers de la Rive" made bikes (I saw one that was claimed to be, and Ernest Csuka confirms they did), so it is likely that the "Duri-Fort" bikes also were made by the company. Makes sense, I guess, as the company later made the famous Vitus bikes, didn't they?
Just a bit unusual to my thinking for a company to make tubing and bicycles.
--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/
>HI Jan,
> Durifort Was made by Ateliers De la Rive and was the predecessor to Vitus
>172 which was a seamed double butted cromo steel, Durifort was a seamed
>double butted hi carbon steel, it was pretty heavy 1.1 x.9 if I recall
>correctly. I built about 10 frames with it when I first started building
>back in the early 70's. I still have a couple of Durifort decals. I got the
>sets from Vic Frasie of Paris Sport Cycles of N.J.
> God Bless
>Anthony Mezzatesta
>Mezzatesta Custom Cycles
>914 Berkley Manor Dr.
>Cranberry Twp. PA 16066
>724-778-8224
>Cell: 917-214-9229