At 12:37 AM +0100 6/4/06, Norris Lockley wrote:
>There are so many features such as the hellenic wrap-over that would
>point the maker out as possibly Jo Routens of Grenoble
Routens frames (those made in-house, rather than mass-produced
bought-in frames) were fillet-brazed, not lugged (or half-lugged)
like this one.
>Other featues such as the drop-outs, the
>type of bracket for the Cyclo derailleur, the seat-stay bridge etc are
>all similar to those used by Routens, but I can't recall him using a
>metal headbadge...
He did. He was selling thousands of mass-produced bikes with
headbadges. He used the same badges on his hand-built machines.
Reyhands also used headbadges - if yours do not have one, that is
rather odd.
>The model is the "Dauphine"..and Routens and
>Grenoble are in the Dauphine region of Haute Savoie.
The better Routens bikes were custom-made, and thus did not have
model names (at least not written on the bike).
>However the hellenic style of seat cluster was not unique to
>Routens...but it may have originated in the Hugonnier-Routens workshops
>and just been copied by others.
That feature was quite popular at the time. Singer used it before
Hugonnier-Routens even started, and Reyhand did it pre-war long
before Singer.
>Another factor that convinces me that
>this is not Routens is the fork crown. Routens preferred the two-plate
>variety..and was still using them in the early 90s..although
>Hugonnier-Routens were known to use "normal" crowns.
The twin-plate crown was a special feature that cost extra and was
used only on the best bikes. There are many "mid-range" Routens bikes
- hand-made in the Grenoble shop - with standard fork crowns. So that
cannot be used as an identifying feature.
>The unusual construction detail on this frame is the use of lugs, that
>appear to be a Nervex Serie-Legere, or very similar, on the head tube
>and bronze-welding elsewhere. I have seen this technique on only one
>other French quality frame..and.. the name escapes me completely..but it
>was very high end..and from a Parisien builder. I WILL!!! find out.
Singer did that for a while in conjunction with their "faux epernois" head tube/head lug combination. Alex Singer's personal porteur bike, in our book "The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles," has that treatment. You probably saw it there. But Joel's bike most definitely is not a Singer. Furthermore, there were many other "half-lugged" bikes at the time.
Somebody else suggested Longoni, but those were fillet-brazed, too, as far as I know.
There were so many mid-range bike builders in France that have long been forgotten. Hundreds made bicycles all over France, usually based on bought-in frames. They added their braze-ons, racks, and paint, and sold them locally to semi-discerning (and semi-pecunious) cyclists. Many of these bikes look similar, because they were made in the same factories...
The top constructeurs are somewhat better known, but even there, you sometimes find something that nobody can identify. In the next VBQ is a "nameless" bike with beautiful workmanship and very interesting, innovative solutions (among them, tiny screw connectors for the lighting wires). I have asked all my sources, and nobody knows what it is...
Jan Heine
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles
140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com