For Sale: AC Sologne Panniers

     Here is a very rare item offered for sale today. it is a pair of AC Sologne panniers in NOS condition. Almost impossible to find in this condition. These are the type B bag I believe. AC Sologne bags were made in France and were top quality. Gilles Berthoud bought the company name  many years ago and continues to make bags with some of these patterns today. These originals are highly sought after today and complete that period French cyclo-tourist bike nicely. These are from the late 60's-1970's. They are made from a nice bluish cotton canvas with leather trim and buckles. They work with most racks.The sides are laced (expandable), a nice feature to get a nice snug fit on your luggage.
     They are 12" wide at the top and taper down to 10" wide at the bottom. they are 14" tall. Fully opened (expanded), they are 7"deep. One of the bags is missing the label. It appears to never have been stitched on, I am not sure if this is the way they came, or was just a mistake. The canvas is not faded, and has no staining. There are a couple darker blue minute spots here and there, only noticable up very close. All leather straps and trim are a nice honey brown.
                                           Contact me at: bikeville@gmail.com for pricing or with any questions.

                                                        Thanks!
SOLD!

Retro-Classic bike builds

(written Spring of 2011, I forgot to post)
 I was recently look at Toei bikes in the book from New Cycling and on various websites and thought it was quite particular that they build up new frames using vintage parts. I have known that for a long time, and could even see some of the parts that I have sold used on some of the bikes, but it still seemed foreign.  Toei has always been fascinated with vintage French bike builders like Rene Herse and Alex Singer, they started in the 1950s, when the look was not vintage.

Simplex Record 60 rear derailleur(1960), Stonglight mod. 63 Super Competition cranks(mid 1960s), Campagnolo Gran Sport hubs(1950s), Mafac Dural Forged brakes(1950s-60s), Toei Frame/Fork/Stem(2006)

More pictures HERE of the Toei

An early build up of my Hanford, for a 300km ride in 2011. I was figuring out stem length and my front rack was not built yet.

A more current view of the Hanford is here from the summer of 2012.

Catalogs again

All Original.  Amazed on the cool catalogs we have here.

I wish I had time to scan these, especially the Singer, Herse, and VAR with Rebour drawings.

Alex Singer (french)

Dilecta (french, 1950s)

Rene Herse (french, early 1960s)

CLB (french, 1950s)

Colnago(Italian, mid 1970s)

VAR (french, 1966)

Cinelli (Italian, 1970s)

Large Flange modified hubs

 In the late 1930s into the 1950s, some French bike builders(Rene Herse, etc) would modify existing parts, making them more functional and in turn more aesthetically pleasing. This hub, I believe to be Pelissier?, had larger flanges added, which would allow the repairing of a broken spoke without having to take the freewheel off the wheel. So one could repair a driveside spoke without have the wheel off the bike for an easy roadside repair. The hub also looks amazing.

 The logo is two birds on either side of the a bicycle hub in the center.

  The aluminum rivet pattern is different on the driveside of the hub, than on the non-driveside.

Monson 2012 bike swap

Here are a couple pictures of some of the cool things I saw at the Monson bicycle swap.

In this early morning blurry picture, there are 2 Raleigh Golden Arrows and 2 chrome Raleigh Sports.

Bag full of empty cool boxes.

As found Le Chemineau (more pictures to come)

Rene Herse front rack-

Rene Herse stem with bell

Modified high flange hubs. more pictures to come.

Cleveland early bicycle-more pictures to come.

Raleigh Lenton Tourist(repaint)- more pictures to come.

Rene Andre Porteur

 Rene Andre is one of the lesser known French constructeurs but many Parisien cyclists rate him as one of the best. He was a builder in Paris, and used to braze for Cycles CNC. This bike has been restored and recently for sale on Ebay(I don't usually post other peoples auctions, but this bike is beautiful and the seller agreed I could post the photos). 
The bike appear to be from the 1960s-1970s. In Fred Delong's Guide to Bicycles(1974), he list Rene Andre as one of the few French builders recommended, along with Rene Herse, Alex Singer, Jo Routens, and R. Ducheron. The blue is perfect, I love it with the box-lining. 

Photos of the Rene Andre taken by photographer Jean-Pierre Pradères - photographer for Golden Age of Handbuilt Bikes, The Competition Bicycle, and The Art of the Racing Motorcycle.

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Ambrosio adjustable stem(same design as 3TTT)

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

large front rack.

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Cibie headlight

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Stronglight 49d crankset with TA adapter(that appears to have been milled down, or at least profiles rounded).

Notice the chain rest,

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Mafac criterium brakes

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Mafac inverse levers

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Nice fender reinforcement, a treatment done by only the top french builders.

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

Copywrite JP Pradères- http://www.jppraderes.com/

I do like the chrome 16mm crank bolts, rather than the typical covers.

Rene Herse Cranks

Jan Heine(of Compass Bicycle and Bicycle Quarterly)is introducing a reproduction Rene Herse crank. Well, maybe not a reproduction, it might be better to say he is putting them back into production. They can be purchased as either a single, double, or triple chain ring setup. Only one crank arm length, 171mm, and chainring sizes are from 24 to 48 tooth, in 2 tooth increments. For $400, that is a great looking crank, and I will be getting one for my Hanford.

cool home made front derailleur

I ran across this front derailleur on Cyclops bike blog and I thought it was pretty exotic and I would like to have one on my bike. It is a take on the Goeland front derailleur(the chain link), the Alex Singer(wire, spoke cage), and Rene Herse(telescoping square).
More information can be found through this search on the Cyclops blog.