I always thought Rixe was german. They still produce; I believe in Stuttgart, but I will check up on that.
Kim Klakow berlin, Germany
> The well-worn Seat diesel clattered to a halt at the end of my drive, its
> all-obliterating red aerosol-spray finish making it look like a shapeless
> blob, gasping its last breath. Ralph, the driver, and a cycling friend ,
> wasted no time on the niceties of a greeting as he prised open an
unwilling
> door and disappeared almost bodily into the rear compartment, only to
> extracate himself seconds later accompanied by some choice Lancashire
expletives
> as fork ends fought against ragged upholstery for their freedom.
>
> A bulky and cumbersome man at most times Ralph was halfway along my drive
> thanks to an uncharacteristically agile gait before I could even utter
the
> magic words "...it's an Opus". In a manner reminiscent of John Wayne, arms
> cranked out sideways, pistols cocked, Ralph lolloped towards me, the few
> remaining rays of sunshine just scrambling to catch the shimmering
paintwork
> of the two frames suspended from his extended arms..
>
> "Not far off..young Norris" he rejoined triumphantly "..but it's not an
> Opus, it's a Rixe"... thereby proving that the red-rose of the House of
> Lancaster can still , on occasion, get the better of the white rose of the
House
> of York.. Ralph has never been known not to display overwhelming amounts
> of enthusiasm for anything remotely resembling a bike frame.
>
> His right arm arced towards me, transmitting a rainbow of reds and greens
> and chrome flashes as the "Rixe" swung perilously near to my forearm.
> "Never heard of it..." was the best I could admit. "Knew i'd flummox you
one of
> these days! What do you reckon?" Ralph rejoiced. And so the mystery of the
> Rixe deepened.
>
> The red and green flamboyant paint had been negligently sprayed over a
> frame whose chromed tubes had had only the briefest of encounters with a
> polishing mop before being fleetingly immersed in the chrome vat, having
> studiously avoided the copper and nickle treatments on their way to
third-class
> plating. The glance reminded me of the thousands of Carltons, produced
under
> the Raleigh regime, where sports frames were crudely plated before being
> further insulted with a sparse coat of either red or emerald gren "flam"
>
> The Rixe looked, from its decor, to be Italian... but it's top-tube decals
> proudly declared "Champion of France", and even though I lusted to better
> Ralph in my explanation of this mystery frame I knew that even he would
not
> accept that even the grottiest of Italian factories would dishonour the
> Italian flag with such an atrocious display of spraymanship, although the
> decals would have made a nice joke at the expense of their trans-Alpine
> neighbours.
>
> "Modele Special Andre Bertin" boasted the immaculate self-adhesive
> chrome-effect transfers on the seat-tube which had somehow, possibly as a
> tribute to the Frenchman himself, managed to outlast and certainly
outshine the
> long term moribund chrome plating on which they were stuck. "RIXE" bragged
> the embossed aluminium headbadge without giving away any trace of its
> national origin.
>
> By this time I was getting very unpleasant feelings about this stranger to
> my "stable" I like to know what I am going to let hang next to my
> Donisellis and Hilton Wrigleys, not to mention the dear old Henry Burton.
And yet
> there was something horribly familiar about the intruder. The fork rake
and
> crown were 1950s Italian, not unlike an Atala, the drop-outs could well be
> Agrati.. There were even some delicate reinforcement tangs on the inside
of
> the seat-stays adjacent to the brake bridge.. not at all unlike a Urago or
> one of Fletcher's Special CNCs. Continuing ever upwards my eyes fell on
> the most grotesquely ugly seat lug and cluster that a hamfisted and
> half-blind trainee framebuilder could produce. The French have a superb
very
> final-sounding adjective to describe such infinite ugliness "...laide!"
pronounced
> even more finally and heavily than "lead" - as in the metal.
>
> Grotty flam, crappy chrome, indescribable seat lug, numb head-badge were
> now all conspiring towards one conclusion.. "it just has to be Dutch,
maybe
> though Belgian.. yes they did some crap paint jobs on the bottom-end
> frames.. and Begium isn't far from France. Yeah... it's got to be southern
> Belgium where they speak French.. and Bertin once rode for a Belgian
brewery."
> For a man who has never been further south than the turn at the end of a
> 25 mile time-trial on the Lancashire / Cheshire border, Ralphs powers of
> deduction and reasoning were threatening to outdo those of Sherlock
Holmes.
>
> Ever the doubting Thomas I eyed the chrome-plated lugs.. hewn.. I really
> can't think of a more truly descriptive verb.. from heavy mild-steel plate
> with the finesse of a car-breaker cold chiselling a stubborn bolt. Hardly
a
> curve in the whole length of any lug's perimeter, but even so still
vaguely
> Italianate..
>
> Now it's unusual for a Yorkshireman and a Lancastrian to admit that
> they're beaten, particularly to one another..."Have you got one of those
> computers?" Ralph ventured. In a sense a truce had been declared, an
amnesty
> agreed, an treaty wordlessly signed..."Ok lets see what Google has to
say.." I
> concurred.
>
> So, if you've read this far you can go the extra mile...and investigate
> for yourselves. As the Yorkshireman's motto says "If tha' duz owt for
nowt,
> do it foh this'sen !" I still have to investigate the Rixe's bottom
bracket
> threads... perhaps they might be Swiss.. but they can wait until tomorrow,
>
> "Now then, Ralph! The Rixe was in your left hand, what's that you got in
> the right?" "What's that you say... a Riviera? Which Riviera's that? The
> French or the Italian?... No don't tell me there's a Belgian Riviera as
well
> .. no not at Ostend.." "Just could be, young Norris! Just think about
it..
> Ostend's not far from the French border is it.. and you know what those
> Belgies are like... they even let monks brew beer from raspberries! Nowt
so
> queer as folk, young Norris ! " Ralph was determined to win the 2004 War
of
> the Roses, even if it did mean verbally abusing the French and the
Belgians
> in the process.
>
> Norris Lockley.. hand-cuffed in the stocks, a prisoner of the
> Lancastrian.. Settle UK
>
> PS:- http://www.bikecult.com/
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
-- Kim Klakow Diplom Grafik Designer Akimbo71@gmx.net +49172-1786481
GMX ProMail mit bestem Virenschutz http://www.gmx.net/