As I visit S/H warehouses and the like in France I have some across quite a lot of ROOLD bikes.
The vast majority of them are mid-range ones such as the one for sale, some are "Course" some are "Touriste" etc etc. However, last September I did ma nage to win, on French Ebay a bike, at a very modest price, that turned out to be a ROOLD. It is built from Reyno0lds SMS tubing..a short-lived series from somewhere in the 80s.
The bike is quite nicely put together and is equipped with Shimano 600 seri es equipment..or rather a mix of 600..and some French components from Nerva r, mafac etc.
When a collector mate of mine checked it out he told me that he had come ac ross quite a lot of very good quality...not quite top-of-the-range - machin es, built with 531 tubing, and typically French equipment. He knew of Roold and told me that it had been a very old established company, trading on a regional basis in the same way as many other French manufacturers did, eg L iberia in Grenoble, Lapierre in Dijon, Leleu in Northern France etc, Gottfr ied in Dole.
The outingn of this bike to the List reminds me that I had decided to check further into the history of the company. I do recall that the manufacturer did actually sponsor a pro team some few years ago..50s/60s, I think
Norris Lockley, Settle UK
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