Some time last back-end I sent a contribution to the List recounting a marvellous day in France on which I had literally stumbled across a top-class 30./40s tandem lying in the brushwood outside a second-hand Hotel de Vente. It was a machine of rare beauty, of bi-laminated construction, with one rear brake brazed underneath the bottom bracket... all hand-painted in sun-burst orange enamel..
What intrigued me most was that I could not identify it..but wondered whether the very abrupt rear drop-outs might aid that identification. I hoped that I had stumbled upon a Singer, a Hurtu... all for 150 euros, about £100. An appeal to the List discovered that there were no Francophile tandem owners who could help me..
The pity was that, leaning against a tree in the orchard back at my "fermette" in the Loire valley, was a lady's cycle complete in every way....except no derailleur.. and all hand painted in a deep burgundy colour, with high-lights such as Durax cranks, headset etc in matt black. The only break in this colour scheme was the terra-cotta red of the 650B Wolber tyres... long past their best.. and a resplendent highly polished aluminium chainguard, its bright silver Art Nouveau design, reflecting the sun's rays..,except for that area in the middle where the letters "AS" stood out proudly from a tooled backgraound.
The frame was a bronze-welded affair with a mighty, impressive ,fork crown worthy of a "randonneuse"... the other noticeable feature being the very abrupt rear vertical drop-outs - identical to those spotted on the orange tandem in the brushwood only hours earlier. Could it be that both machines were made by "AS" himself. What a coincidence !
The next day I went back for the tandem .. just in time to see someone else wheeling it way. Would he suspect the handiwork of "AS"
Now I know from the eBay picture of those severed drop-outs that the ones I had noted but not recognised were Nivex.. but what I do not know is who on earth "AS" is ! yes of course Alex Singer comes to mind.. and the neighbours who gave me the lady's bike hailed from the suburbs of Paris not 30 minutes from the great mans's workshop... but is it really reasonable to hope that that the drab burgundy bike could really be his work ? I may soon find out, for the bike was consigned to the chicken shed in the garden..,and I return to France next week.. so with the aid of some 3M Wet-and-dry, gentle care and attention on the down-tube..." Watch this space.." as they say.
As for the French seller who is amputating the front and rear ends off bikes... it is possible that he either doesn't know what the frames are,,, as with my "AS" or he has come across the machines for 10 or 20 euros ( about the same in $$$ I think) at some charity warehouse. There are dozens of lady;s twin lateral-framed bikes to be had in France for little money.. many are sent to the waste skip... and let's face reality.. if I offered you a Tendil, a Guegneaud, a BTR etc etc.. the names wouldn't have you jumping for the Paypal button, would they ?
Norris Lockley.. Settle-sur-Loire.. or almost