In all my years of collecting bikes and bits I have never knowingly seen a Doucheron, (or should that be "Ducheron"?). .Or is the frame fo r sale either of these? What does a Doucheron/Ducheron look like?
I had read that he was a well-known "constructeur" but then a French collec tor told me that this builder had quite a sizeable workshop, actually made batches of delivery bikes for La Poste - the French post-office, and made frames by the container load for export to the States in the 60/ 70s.
It doesn't matter really because what is being shown for sale is quite an a ttractive 50s road frame, albeit the paint is slightly worse for wear, the gear-lever boss has been removed untidily..and there is denge somewhere. Wh at I am thinking is what List members would think of this frame if the pain t was in good original nick..with some patina....and it had a full set of " URAGO" transfers on it...after the style of Nelson Miller's Urago on the CR site. Apart from the very unique style of top-eye - can anyone explain the logic of that design? - the frame is not at all unlike a URAGO or, for tha t matter it is not unlike about forty frames in my collection...most of the m differentiated only by top-eye designs.
What I cannot easily do is to date this frame, although there is little dou bt it is from the 50s..earlier rather than later. What is curious is the mi xture of Nervex Pro MkII lugset matched up with a set of 1940s fork-ends. I have a 1947 Peugeot "team frame" like the one Emile Idee rode that year. I t has Nervex Serie Legere lugs matched to these same front and rear fork&nb sp; ends.
Regarding Mike's rant and the seller's defense of his presentation of the f rame, it is possible to see how both views are held. I am sitting on the fe nce on those matters, but what nags at me a little is that the seller has " over-egged" his eulogy of his frame The seller says that the drop-outs are "constructeur" ones, Defintely not so..they are just regular pressed-plate models. He then continues to talk about "...the amazing number of braze-on stops and eyes...this is quite uncommon for this vintage"..and " I don't th ink it came with a front derailleur".
How many 1950s French road frames do you see with the full Nervex tre atment that DO NOT have all these braze-ons? SHow me one that doesn't..and that will be the exception! As for the lack of front derailleur..again show me a 1950s French road bike that didn't have one. The reason that this fra me shows no trace of a L/H D/T gear-lever boss, or a cable stop at the bott om of the D/T on the L/H side..or perhaps a double pulley on the R/H side i s because the bike was equipped with a Simplex rod-type "clanger".
Just imagine what levels the enthusiastic bidding would have reached if the seller had been able to claim that the frame is a Renee Herse? There is a Rene Herse full-Nervex rigged bike in the St Etienne Museum of Arts and Ind ustry that appears to be as tidily built as this...Doucheron/Ducheron. It. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the price is in the name on the do wn-tube.
Norris Lockley, Settle UK
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