*DURAVIA.... that is the real name of the Mercier-branded D-I-Y bolt-together aluminium frame that Hilary is selling* ** I recall, about six years ago, clambering up the well-worn stone treads of a spiral staircase leading from the loading bay of a formerly magnificent mill that stood just forty or so meters across the road from the River Rhone in a tiny forsaken town about sixty kilometres south of Lyon. That the town was surrounded by some of the finest northern Rhone vineyards producing St Joseph and Cornas wines was a real bonus, particularly when there were plenty of degustations to be had, in roadside cellars en route.
The other bonus to be had, after enduring all those glasses of gorgeous wine, was the mill. All its weaving machinery had been long since removed, but the large overhead drive shafts with their wooden and cast-iron pulleys were still in situ, as were the broad leather driving belts, but by now they had aged and darkened, but still had not cracked - just like a well cossetted Ideale Rebour sadlle. The smell of the place was fantastic.
So what was I doing there..?.Well the mill had been acquired by the charity EMMAUS as a retail outlet for all the bric and brac that the garages and lofts of the neighbouring villages could throw out....and generally speaking where ther is bric - a brac in France there's old bikes aplenty. And so it transpired.
To the right at the top of the staircase stood a platform..on the platform stood six bikes..one of which was a Stella..but another was a very unusual machine, not just by the nature of its esoteric aaccessories but more so by the nature of the construction of the frame.
Now if you have already had a look at Hilary's aluminium MERCIER, then I will wager a bottle of my good Rhone Syrah to your bottle of tasty Californian Cabernet Sauvugnon, that the distinctive structural details of the MERCIER are still fresh in your mind. Unforgetable....as Nat King Cole used to sing..and I'll wager too ,that he hadn't even seen a DURAVIA.
It's a fact that I generally drive ugly cars...and I am fascinated by ugly design..and bike frames do not come much uglier than the DURAVIA...unless its a MECADURAL...Hilary has kindly juxtaposed just such a frame for the purpose of this comparison.
In the 40s most Mecadurals carried the names of Mercier, Anton Magne, the Pelissier Brothers et al..and some carried DURAVIA.
Although my first siting of the Rhone valley Duravia was love at first sight, I soon realised that the object of my affection had some serious warts and blemishes some of which were more than skin deep. My long-suffering wife just could not believe that I intended to get up close and cuddly with the Duravia, but that's just what I did..I examined every one of its cast and allen-key clamped lugs.
Suffice to say not one was fully intact..almost all showed some form of cracking, the seat-lug had been welded, the bottom headlug had had a bolt hole drilled straight through lug and tube and the bracket shell needed urgent stitching together surgery. But still the frame enticed me..but reluctantly, very reluctantly I did not buy it as I could really see no practical way in which it could be repaired and made rideable.
However a couple of years later I won, on French Ebay, what the seller described as an ALAN framed bike..but the photo was so bad that it could have been anything with gold frame tubes. At 35 euros it still had the advantage of being, unusually, all GIPIEMME equipped. However when it arrived at my house in France I unpacked not an ALAN but a seriously attractive and totally unblemished DURAVIA...all cast and bolted silver lugs and gold anodised tubes. What a beauty and what un undemanding and pleasant ride.
Researching the brand DURAVIA has been difficult and it has recently been revived yet again for a range of modest sports bikes. Almost certainly the frames were built in the Lyon region which has been the home over the years to several builders using aluminium or carbon tubes..Just think VITUS, RHONAL, RBE, Guichard ,TVT. These latter frames that emerged, in 1983, from a factory in the tiny village of St Genix-sur-Guiers, twixt Lyon and Chambery, but all the lugs and other aluminium parts were made in a factory just to the south of Lyon. There is a distinct design similarity between the Duravia lugs and those of tVT..but by the time the latter had been developed, CIBA-Geigy had invented Araldite epoxy glue..no more clamped and bolted joints.
However I think that Duravia started its life in another tiny village just to the NE of Lyon..but I did not go into that particular mill on the banks of the Saone,until a couple of years later..and the visit almost cost me 1,000,000 francs.
The moral of this story so far is that anyone drinking enough good quality red Rhone wine, when driving down the Rhone Valley, might just be lucky enough to find a badly cracked and neglected DURAVIA cycle in an old mill. The second moral is that DURAVIA owners must not be too cack-handed and should not lean too heavily on the Allen keys when servicing their frames and under no circumstances should they add extra leverage by using a tube slipped onto the shank of the key, otherwise...not even I will want to buy that frame!
Norris Lockley
Settle-sur-Rhone-et-Saone, UK