Regarding the enquiry about the classy looking "Philippe" bike on sale on C raigslist, I'm pretty sure, just from its appearance, that it was made in F rance by a company called, not surprisingly "Cycles Philippe",
The company is based in Blois, that rather attractive city, with an imposin g cathedral, that straddles the River Loire, about 80 kms S/W of Paris...it 's a very rapid drive by the autoroute.
The company was started in 1984 by Philippe Desnavailles, quite a wel l-known amateur racing cyclist, and he is still trading from the same adres s at 17 boulevard de l'Industrie, 43 years later. He has however moved on i n terms of the machines he produces. At the outset he was a subcontractor t o other shops in the Loiret area, including to my friend J-M Duret, at Arge nt-sur-Sauldre, not too far away up the road. His frames tended to be middl e of the road racing and track machines, built to a simple formula using pl ain guage Vitus tubing built into Bocama long-point lugs. The finishes were simple pearl white, or Gios blue or Ferrari red, all with chrome rear tria ngles and front forks. Engraving was tastefully carried out on the fork cro wn the seat-stay eyes..and also on the top-tube, just forward of the seat c luster. The frames were absolutely unbeatable value..and his small AUDAX-ty pe frames of 47,48, and 49cms were real triumphs of the framebuilder's skil l.
As his reputation grew so did his range of frames until he branched out int o welded aluminum frames, much like Sabliere's,..and well ahead of the tren d that was to follow. He probably reached a peak, in a sense in the late 80 s/early 90s when he built the frames under the "MAXISPORT" brand for the th en team managed by Cyrille Guimard, and featuring Laurent Fignon. I think t hat the team was either CASTORAMA of SYSTEME-U. Maxisport was a company own ed by Fignon and Guimard. The frames, some steel and some aluminium, were p ainted in two shades of blue flowing together...very classy. I think that P hilippe was also responsible for a range of superbly crafted range of lugle ss steel racing bikes and tandems that were sold by a wholesaler Cycles CAR LOS based just down the Loire at Tours
Philippe is still in business, hand-building his own aluminium frames which are favourites among the "cyclo-sportif" fraternity..and it is certain tha t there will be a fair few in this year's Paris-Brest-Paris.. His frames ap pear for sale quite often on French Ebay and about six months ago I won one of the MAXISPORT bikes for quite a reasoable price. The seller would not s end the bike outside France, so I asked for a delivery to my address in San cerre, only about 80 kms from Blois. The seller refused to sell it to me fo r not declaring, before bidding, that I was English. So much for the Entent e Cordiale !!
The web-site is at :www.philippebicycles.free.fr. If yhou over in Paris for the Tour-d F..there are several excellent shops to be visited in the Blois area.
Norris Lockley, Settle UK
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