Dear Wyndham, No one had taken you up yet, so...: Let me say that your Barale is one very attractive frameset, made of Vit us tubing I note--and the decal is yet another gorgeous detail among man y. Feels like circa 1953-'55-ish to me, but it's just that, a feeling--w hat do others more knowledgeable say? Can it even be narrowed as much as this? That boxy Simplex dropout is a tell-tale sign, I believe--and isn 't it the match to a truly sought-after and expensive mid-to-late '50s S implex derailleur more frequently than the pull-chain Tour de France mod el pictured? I lack the facts (read: reference materials or direct exper ience (born 1967)), but didn't want your post to get passed over--as see med to be happening. Let's hope some others will pick it up. Could this frameset be late '40s rather than early/ mid-50s as I speculate? What at tribute might narrow it down? At what point does that aforementioned der ailleur hanger appear--with the Simplex T de F derailleur, or sometime a fter (note to self: finally buy copy of THE DANCING CHAIN).
Do we have any trust that we're seeing the original derailleurs (Wyndham is there anything we don't know?)? Is that a double or single pulley brazed on the bottom bracket?
By the way, for those reading recently about the long-cage version of th e manual front derailleur by Simplex: it is illustrated here on this Bar ale; follow the link below. Thanks for reprinting Mr. Lockley's original post regarding Barale.
Best Regards,
Tom Ward / Manhattan / USA
>Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:52:38 +0000
>From: Simon PJ <simonpj@mac.com>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: Re: [CR]Another neat bike from 40s/50s on French Ebay
>I bought the Barale Britania frame that occasioned Norris's very intere
sting
>post about the Barale mark, below.
>I have posted some photos of the frame here:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
>I would be very grateful for any thoughts about the probable date of th
e
>frame - and thus also about how it should be built up.
Many thanks,
Wyndham Pulman-Jones Girton, Cambs., UK.
On 24/9/07 00:06, "Norris Lockley" <norris.lockley@talktalk.net> wrote:
>
>
> The "BARALE" that Steve pointed out to the List is quite an interestin
g
fra
> me in that it looks to be of French manufacture, has a very British na
me "B
> RITANNIA" but claims to have some Italian origins - "BARALE"
>
> For whatever reason, in France around about the mid century it was rel
at
> ively fashionable to sell French -made frames with English names..WIND
SOR c
> omes to mind and BURTON..and with a coat-of-arms if possible.
>
> This frame with its Simplex ends, Vitus tubing, possibly Prugnat lugs
appea
> rs to typify French road frames of that era.
>
> The BARALE connection comes from the family of that name that produced
t
> hree Pro road racing cyclists. Of the three Guiseppe was slightly succ
> essful, but Germano was even more so, spending much of his career in t
he St
> Pelegrino and Carpano squads.
>
> A couple of years ago I bought a complete BARALE bike from a charity w
ar
> ehouse, about two hours south of, Paris. At a guess it a mid 60s mach
> ine, with a complete Campagnolo spec. The saddle, one of those suede-c
overe
> d affairs is also badged "BARALE" The Ebay frame is for sale from an o
uter
> suburb of Paris called Chavenay. Perhaps BARALE had an agent in Paris.
>
> My BARALE is very much an Italian-made frame...the headbadge carries t
he
> name "CICLI BARALE"..the address is Ventimiglia. This is a small town
just
> a handful of kilometres on the other side of the border from Menton at
the
> eastern end of the Riviera.
>
> It would have been easy for BARALE to have found agents in France, jus
t
> as the several builders such as Bruno Tardivo, of CBT-Italia fame, bas
ed in
> Cuneo, again just near the border, have done so successfully in recent
years.
>
> However I think that in the case of this frame the traffic was in the
ot
> her direction, with Barale importing from France. In the last couple o
f yea
> rs I have come across quite a few frames built in workshops along that
end
> of the Riviera and they were not all from the URAGO workshops. Just wh
o mad
> e them I am not sure, but there was at least one quality producer in M
arseille
>
> Perhaps another reason for the very British name is that the Riviera w
as
> extremely popular with British holiday makers during the immediate pos
t-wa
> r period, even if the majority of them had chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royc
es.
>
> Norris Lockley..Settle-sur-Riviera, UK
>
>
>
> Norris Lockley