[CR]Parts Monkeys part 2, for Kim

(Example: Production Builders:Cinelli)

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:40:54 +0200 (CEST)
From: "nick Bordo" <nicbordeaux@yahoo.fr>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Parts Monkeys part 2, for Kim

Hi Kim, thanks for the message. The point of the brakes was that there are people hacking anything with those, whatever period, because they were fitted to quite a few later Herses when the daughter et al took over and production upped rather considerably. I stick those brakes on ebay tommorow with levers and hangers, mention RH, I'll take you on at 2-1 they 75+ buck. I already tried so I know.

In the parcel was other gear, notably a pristine 9 rivet 90 Idéale with all rivets including 3 nose ones stamped, I ebayed one for 128 not long ago, rivet stamping and steel/copper distribution counts. There were also two very nice early stronglight cranksets. Those were not fitted to Mistrals to the best extent of my knowledge, but I'm not infallible, you could be right.

If you've followed previous posts, I sold off some stuff ebay to buy something nice and reorientate my "collection" towards one-offs.

The wheels that you can see on my "site" (just for this list actually) came from a fabulous handbuilt cyclotourist 1950's machine. Time I got to it, the guy had ebayed the shifters, crankset and saddle, trashed the rest except the wheels which I got I guess only because they didn't fit into his car trunk when he drove the frame to the dump. I saw the photos of it before he caught on to the fact that people wanted certain things for RH's or to have something RH like.

Kim, I can guarantee you that I have seen more Herses than you will in three lifetimes. There are a very few serious collectors over here who preserve Herses AND other worthwhile machines. I know a couple of those people. It's lucky that they exist.

I'm trying to make a point, just one: there is a awful lot more to the mid-40's to late seventies/early eighties in the way of fabulous French machines than RH and Singers, and the monomaniacal fad for these things, as fabulous as some of them may be and most are, is currently the death toll for everything else.

Sorry to be long winded, but I do want to state that even some Herse's are being hacked because almost any bike without a documented history is worth a darn lot less than the sum of it's components on ebay.

I guess I'm a bit of a bragger and the meek shall inherit the earth, etc. They can inherit it all they want far as I care until such time as people wake up to the fact that bike preservation and desireabilirty isn't just Zeus, RH, Colnago, Bianchi and a few other minor makers.

All the best

Nick Bordo, Agen, Aquitaine, France.

Hi Nick, hi all,

Nick, I´m not sure what you think is supposed to go on a Herse, but the parts you show are Vainqueurs when they weren´t anything all too special anymore, a low-budget Huret FD, tourney shifters and a Huret Challenger RD. Probably came on a Motobecane Mistral II or similar junker. If you ever get a Herse, let somebody else put the parts on it.

Best, kim

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