Just checking over Nick Bordo's small website with his pictures of the B ertin-Milremo and the unidentified "lightweight handbuilt", I think
that Nick must have written his contri to the LIst with a big tongue in his cheek.
I dont think really that Andre Bertin was a man for spending his hard-ea rned French francs in the land of the Italian lira. Nick's Bertin, with its Bocama lugs, is a typical 60/70s French produced frame. It bears a close r esemblance to so many other typically French frames that use the BCM lugs.. very easily recognised as they are.
I have never been able to discover just who built Bertin's frames but it could have been any one of a dozen small factories up among the coal field s and textile mills of the Arras- Lille area, although some were made in St Etienne. It's quite strange but, right up until the ubiquitous non-de script over -transferred and over-sized tubed alloy frames killed off the p roduction of the trusty and interesting steel frame, Bertin's company was s till marketing frames with the same type of fancy 1960s style paintwork and heavy lug-lining..and some with those hideous long pressed-in fluted top-e yes.Curiously just this afternoon I was dismantling and as late 60s/early 7 0s MOTOBECANE..one of the originals from the Pantin factory, before the Jap s got involved with the company. If I had removed the sets of those thin al uminium-film decals, the frame could have been a "BERTIN".
As for Nick's "handbuilt lightweight"..I am sorry to have to point out t hat is is most unlikely to be the work of an individual builder. The "A.G." under the bracket is the mark of the manufacturer Crozet who was responsib le for many of the cast lug sets used in the 30s and 40s. Last year, on the List, we discussed these lugs; I think there are still many emails in the Archive listed under the "GARIN" or "Charles Garin" heading.
Nicks "better frame" has probably come from the workshops of a medium-si zed regional manufacturer. I have at least three similar frames...even to t he arrow-head type top-eyes...One is a TERROT, of Dijon. touring frame..and the other two are made by "Harwell", a manufacturer based in either Valenc e (Drome) or Romans (Drome) ..or just possibly Grenoble. Not having found a nything at all in any archive about "Harwell"..it could just be that the co mpany bought the frames in from Terrot, whose factory was not very far away .
Not that these frames are to be looked down on in any way. They are as F rench as Camembert cheese and Bordeaux wine..and are truly representative o f the products of the French cycle industry in the post-war years..and poss ible pre-war too. They clean up well too..as most of the ones I find of thi s age have been hand-painted by successive generations of farmers and their staff. One of the very common finished..or refinishes, is all black...and I really mean ALL BLACK....and heavily applied.
It took me some time to understand why so many bikes had been painted bl ack..everything black..and it wasn't until I dared to ask a gentle peasant lady to whom I had just paid the asking price of one euro for her interesti ng light touring bike, at the local "brocante" sale, that I learned the rea l truth.
"A cause de la guerre, Monsieur...aucune lumiere.." The bike was being s old in a small village just at the foot of the immense cliffs that su rge up to the Vercors plateau, a vast bowl of mountains, forest s, and huge meadows punctuated by small farming towns and hamlet s, an area that stretches from Grenoble in the north through to Valence and Romans and DIe in the south.
In the anals of WWII, the Vercors was one of the principal areas of Fran ce where the Maquis - the Free French Underground army possibly bette r known as the Resistance- fought courageous battles against the might of t he Germans. Because the cliffs leading up to the Vercors were so difficult to ascend, the Allies, who supported the Maquis, had to drop supplies by pa rachute. So in the dead of night the maquisards would pedal out of their hi ding places to search out and collect the boxes of supplies. However becaus e it was known that there were German machine-gun emplacements dotted aroun d the perimeter of the rocky bowl, it was essential that no indication of t he silent bikes was given..hence no shiney chrome to reflect the stars or t he moon, no chromed spokes to bedazzle the enemy...just black bikes..all bl ack bikes..the blacker the better. Even the rear red lights and reflectors got the same black treatment while the front lamps were treated to a long l ong cowl..somewhat like the worst of the nebs on those ghastly baseball cap s..to ensure that all light was projected downwards and as near to the bike s front wheel as possible.
If you are ever in that area..don't fail to visit the Musee of the Resis tance, built at Mitterand's government in the 70s, near Vassieux-en-Ve rcors., or Lans-en-Vercors...or Villard-en-Vercors. There were incredible a trocities carried out by the Germans...whole populations of small villages lined up against the wall and "fusillade"
The cycling is phenomenal..as is the scenery..with all the cols you coul d wish for on the agenda.
Norris Lockley..getting a little tearful and nostalgic there..Settle UK
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