Marty,
That looks like a Herse to me. Someone perverted it a bit. Fixable; too bad it's a chrome bike.
Rene Herse track bikes do exist. I have a 1960 track bike in the shop wh ich belongs to Ted Kirkbride. It was said to be a RH track bike for the 1960 Paris bike show where Dr. Graves was able to purchase it and bring it back to the states. Ted Kirkbride bought it to race on here in SOCAL. It is unusual because it also has a headclip style headset with integra l bearing headlugs.
Regarding Raysport Bicycles! Dig this. I was talking with a customer who brought us a frame repair to do and for some reason he mentioned Rayspo rt bikes. Turns out that a racer from St. Louis named Ray Florman had th ese frames built by some company in Mexico. The bikes are apparently alm ost exact copies of Cinellis! And they WERE NOT built by Windsor in Mexi co. We believe (Sir Maldoror and myself) that they were actually built b y Benotto in Mexico City. Turns out this gentleman HAS his Raysport bike and he will be at our little ride/party this Sunday. I will try to make sure he brings it to the ride.
How's that for serendipity?
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
While doing my daily ebay slog, I found the following frame:
http://ebay.com/
It is described as a Herse Track/Pista frame but I'm not so sure thats w hat it really is. The bike strikes me as more a path racer in the British sense. It has tr ack ends with a derailleur hanger, is drilled for brakes (both fork and brake bridge), and has what appears to be holes in the top tube for cable routing. As I don't want to get into (or dredge up) the whole Herse issue that we
beat to death last month could someone enlighten me as to what this is? One further question, if I may, did Herse make true Piste bikes? I've se en randonneur and racing models but never a piste bike.
Marty Eison
Frisco, Texas USA