Cranky Meral find

Picked this up locally over the weekend. Can't find much detail about it other than it was made in France in the 80s and has Huret gears. No idea what the tube quality is but it's surprisingly light at 21lbs.



....and a nice Brooks Competition saddle



Went out on it yesterday and it's a nice ride despite the too skinny for me tyres. A couple of problems though...the pedals are horrible and my SPDs appear to be a different thread Also the brakes are dreadful, will some modern blocks help?

I'm off to my lbs to see if the cranks can be re-threaded but if I need to replace them (they appear to be odd ones anyway) what sort of options do I have if I want to replace the chainset for something a little kinder to my old legs?

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meral was a nice french framemaker from the "Angers" region in the country ( remember "la douceur angevine" from the poet Joachim du Bellay ) :idea:

He built nice roadbikes but was also renowned for his women bikes with a specific toptube which angled half of his length to rejoin the seattube horizontally

you seem to have possibly a mish mash of parts with some midrange Huret derailleurs
possibly some upper range CLB brake calipers - have they got a red dot ? if yes - these are the CLB professional which range between 90g and 140 g per caliper according to the version ! if not the red dot , then lower CLB
Looks like a solida crankset ? what is the engraving ?
Your wheels are probably some Normandy High Flanged ones on Mavic rims

If the bike is very light, then, its the frame which must be the "culprit" so maybe a very light frame :idea:
it looks more seventiish to me than 80's though
if it is the case, it deserves a stronglight chainset and better derailleurs like simplex

your bike is most probably with all the threadings in french format - hence your pedals issue :idea:

hello there, any chance a pic of the d tube badge
saddle is in really good nick
is the tubing vitus ?

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Thanks for the info, much more than I managed to find The hubs are indeed Normandy and it looks like I have the lower spec brake calipers.

Saddle was a bit rough but came up nicely with a good clean and feed and some aluminium foil to clean the rails. Not sure if the tubing is Vitus, how can I tell?

Took the bike round to my lbs to have the cranks sorted for SPDs, or so I thought :? He said there was play in the non drive side crank (which I'd missed) and offered to replace so I agreed and left it with him.

Went to pick it up today and he said he'd been unable to fit the SPD on the driveside crank so just fitted one to the replacement non drive side :!: I told him about the French thread thing and he said he'd never heard of it :facepalm: neither had a rep who was in the shop at the time :facepalm: :facepalm: I paid him for fitting the crank and some modern blocks which sorted my brakes out and decided to take my business elsewhere.

I called another lbs who are pretty reputable and spoke to the owner regarding the cranks who said he'd never heard of French thread either :facepalm: Unbelieveable :!: 30 seconds on the net and even a noob like me can find all the information I need about French threads and options to get them cut to English.

I still need to sort them out



Anyway, rant over. Here's some pics I took after a good cleaning and having put some proper sized tyres on.

cheers, i think those brake calliper's are cool ! im good at creating work here so i wont ask you for a pic of what
the head tube badge should look like.not that i have a badge fettish or anything

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your brakes

http://www.velobase.com/ViewComponent.a ... 2&Enum=117

difficult to tell about your frame tube

some vitus tubes are engraved but thinly and its always below the paint
its the case for Super Vitus 971 and 980 ( introduced in 1971 and 1980 !)
They were the lightest tubes produced by this french company at that time
, double butted comparable to Columbus SL
Frames generally weigh about 1800 to 1850 g and forks about 650 g for a 55 cm sized frame
but I doubt your frame is in that grade. Its probably a lower grade one.
The fork finish and crown is not really the style used for these upper range frames and quite often chromed in certain parts. The lugs look also quite simple. And your parts which are mid range and look like original to the initial build (like your derailleurs , or your crankset which is actually a Nervar) would generally be fitted on mid range models and frames.


Nevertheless Meral is a very decent framemaker so you ve got a midmarket decent french steed - it changes from the ubiquitous Peugeot

The remaining driveside crank has Silstar engraved into it and has the size of the thread too (which my lbs missed).

I'll probably replace the chainset now rather than have the remaining crank re-threaded. I've already spent more than I budgeted, so any clues or pointers towards a decent quality used set and what tools would I need to do this myself?

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frankly
rethreading a crank should be much less expensive than changing the chainset
I don't know what sort of crank he did put on the non driveside - is it english ? vintage ?

a "regular" french chainset on these bikes would be a stronglight or nervar - in France you would find them at 25/30 gbp. In England, frankly I dunno !

If you don't want to spend too much, I think you ought to try to find a lbs who knows his trade :facepalm: - or shall I say better - old and experienced enough to know about the difference between a pedal with french or english thread and a tap to rethread your drive side in an english format :idea:

Re: Re:

bduc61":29yyh3q1 said:

I don't know what sort of crank he did put on the non driveside - is it english ? vintage ?

Click to expand...

English cheap/nasty lump, not even sure it's the same length :?

TBH I don't have much confidence in my two local lbs from this and from previous work carried out. I'll have to have a look around and see what I can find for replacement.

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Update: Went round to the other lbs (the one who had never heard of French thread) and even when he saw it still insisted all threads were the same but he'd ask one of his assistants to run a tap through to clean it out while I waited.

Quite entertaining to watch the look on his face as he realised the tap was actually cutting thread 5 minutes later job was done and my spds perfectly fitted. And he only charged a couple of £ for the work

Still might change the chainset later but at least I can ride it without the fear of slipping my pedals.

Thanks for all the info and advice