Back from Flanders, everything went well although I didn´t make it to any cycling museums.
On our way cycling from De Haan to Ostend (our = my class, a colleague and myself) we stopped over at a supermarket in front of which there was a nice, if well used fifties racing bike, c/w Reynolds transfer, steel barrelled Campag hubs and some Record and SR parts. The chap who owns it (still does, sorry to say) has had it for 45 years, had it made to measure, too, and raced it for twenty years. Generally speaking, there is a great deal of classic cycles to be seen on Flanders´ roads.
After the sightseeing programme in Bruges when we had released the kids to roam the city I decided not to accompany my colleague to visit churches and so on; the weather was just too nice. So I got back on the bike and just drifted through that wonderful town, and lo and behold found myself looking in amazement at a cycle shop in a state of dissolution. Luckily I had already stopped at a great number of Bruges´ more cultural attractions because Cycles Lea was where I spent the rest of the afternoon - despite the weather.
It turned out that the third generation of Cycles Lea owners had to give up the firm, had been selling off stock for some time, but still some very nice things were left. The shop had been turned into a huge bazaar, with all boxes and drawers open for browsing. Besides some modern things a very nice tandem frame (Fifties?), tons of "balhoofdplaatjes" (headbadges) and a great deal of frame building material and tools were still there.
I bought some nice cycling clothing for myself and my son (9), yellow and blue with embroidered "CYCLES LEA" on it. Also there were some short lengths of inch pitch track chain and some track cogs in a box (some of which are still there). All in all I left with two big carrier bags full of stuff for a very moderate price. Chatting to old Mvr. Proot was quite interesting, too.
The items I would like to offer to the list are a Campag cable routing clip which goes in front of the bottom bracket when there are no brazed on provisions for derailleur cables. It´s NOS, however the binder bolt is missing. Is it worth $ 10, I wonder?
Also I found a friction lever marked "Lautaret". It is used and just the lever assembly, and so I either need whatever dangled at the other end of the cable, or someone would perhaps like it for his or her cycle.
Lastly, there is a NOS Trivelox quadrant c/w cable and a cable stop. Same applies as for the Lautaret lever.
Regards,
Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany