someone wrote:
I'm so glad Peter brought that up. The French builders - even the expensive ones - seem not to expect their frames to be inspected from a distance of 2 inches (50mm). Their aesthetic appears to be based on having the bike look pleasing from a distance of a few feet.
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Not true. The best constructeur bikes (Herse, Singer, name-a-few-others... the top Routens, or Hurtu come to mind) made a 60s PX 10 look like what it is: a production frame slapped together in a very big hurry.
Don't believe me? Go look at a lugged Herse from the 50s in original paint. In particular the sort of bike you can see in Jan Heine's new book. A fully tricked-out Herse radonneur bike is as good as it gets, in terms of fit, finish, workmanship and sheer beauty. Lower line french production bikes of the same period don't even come close.
Although, that said I've always had a liking for those 50s PX10s in blue with the yellow lugs. Up close they're still awfully crude. But cool, nonetheless.
An Herse though...completely different sort of thing. Looks good from an inch away.
Charles "nearly ruined my copy of Jan's book by drooling all over it" Andrews SoCal