I'm overwhelmed !!! I really would like to thank the dozen or so List members who responded on and off the List to my pleas for help to enable me to browse the photos of this..as several people have already said. ..stunning Urago.
This machine really is a gem, and I think it dates from the mid-50s rather than the early 50s...the earlier ones having chrome lugs and fork crown on the top-of the -range models.
The model, with its Vitus tubing is the "Professionell"..a model that had been the very top model in the early 50s until it was surpassed by the "Plume" which was a custom-only built frame, using Reynolds 531DB. In '53 the "Plume" was equipped with the Stronglight cotterless chainset, while the "Professionell" had the Simplex double on Duprat Professional cranks...From a couple of photos that Michael sent me off-List it appears that the frame has Nervex Pro Mk 1 lugs, the new Simplex forged rear drop-outs and that tell-tale later seat-stay top-eye with the single "bar" running along the length. This also appears on some Andre Bertin frames. The earlier frames had an incredibly elegant long triangular section (almost) full wrap-over.
Interestingly the equipment seems to be identical to that used on the mid-50s Peugeot PX10 (I hope that this is the correct code for the top-of-the-range Peugeot with a flam blue finish and yellow head-lugs)..ie Stronglight 49A chainset, Simplex 543 mech, Beborex brakes and Ideale saddl. Just wonder what the hubs are - Prior S/F perhaps?
it is difficult to discover many facts about the Urago company, and I have always wondered whether the company made its own frames or whether someone such as CNC in Paris supplied them, because some models appear to be identical. However I have read somwehere of a separate Urago workshop in NIce, away from the retail shops. Anybody got any definitive ino on Urago.?
Norris Lockley..Settle Uk