French Barn Find - Buckets of Patina!

Forks off, and with some cleaning and rigourous inspection I'm opting for the forks from
Lot #1 - not the original De Dion - Bouton ones. The original forks show evidence of a
front wheel dynamo attached at some point which has sadly made a dent and rust hole.

They both have the same steerer column "Resista", produced by company specialising in threaded
tubes. The ad below from the late 20s even shows they produced steel internally ribbed columns, and
from the quick research I did they supplied fork columns to a lot of the cycle industry.
 

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So far I'm pretty amazed at the condition of the steel that was not at direct mercy to the elements.

The fork crowns are almost the same - if anything the one from Lot #1 appears more refined and I'm
suspecting it is slightly more recent. Interestingly, both fork columns were plugged at the bottom
with what appeared to be window putty!

There is no heart-ache about colour mis-match with this build.... :facepalm:
 

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Another oddity is the lower cup of the headsets are only pushed in the head-tube bottom by hand - no press fit.

This made cleaning easy; drill in the vice with a small wire brush attachment.
 

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Loving the thread Woz...
 
In the end I've gone for a mish-mash set-up by selecting the best condition parts.

- The lower cup and fork crown ring from Lot #1 are in absolute superb condition. They use 4mm ball bearings.
- The upper cup did not survive time / extraction, so I'm using the original De Dion - Bouton top
race that uses 3.5mm ball bearings.

I like to think that I've hacked up a FSA Pig headset with 100 year old parts. :p
 

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A side note for the tinkerers.....the locking washer in the headset as a flat on one side, the
fork column is simply (crudely) filed down to let it slide on. Very low-tech compared to a
distinct peg and machined groove in the steerer column.

Parts all ready to fit tomorrow.
 

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Final image for tonight, a cool old postcard of workers outside the De Dion - Bouton factory.

At one point, it was home to the largest car manufacturer in the world, all made by hand. God
knows how they had space to do bikes as well; perhaps in the back sheds?

Before we get into French stereo types, these chaps are not on strike, they are the early
risers with a coffee and croissant in the stomach waiting for the gates to open.

Love the fact two chaps have rolled up on sleek looking fast bikes.
 

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The History Man":qxpj6zkf said:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=405415
Click to expand...

I've been following your build. It's scrubbed up nicely, plus the brake caliper is genius which
gives me something to think about later. I'm reckoning my chapter on brakes will drag on
a bit - as it were :facepalm:
 
Headset and forks are in. Despite it being somewhat of a 3 handed fiddle, it all went
better than I thought it would.

The only minor issue being the locking washer had to be left behind to provide
plenty of thread for the upper lock ring. No big loss and saves precious grams.

Here is a natural light shot showing the lugless front end and a beautiful textured finish :cool:
 

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