Mystery Bike ! 1950 French Randonneuse 650B

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Well lets cross the channel again to come on the continent

Here is a new mystery bike.
I swear it is , its written on it ! MB in capital letters :mrgreen:




This bike is actually very special.

It sports the most exclusive features of a 1950 high end 650B French randonneuse so is undoubtfully the work of a upperhand framemaker but , alas, is not signed with a full name !

And it has not been resprayed ! And I know its true as I got it from its initial owner who had it built in 1950.
Here it is as I got it




When I found it, I could not miss some very specifics items which told me it must be from a very well known French maker : a Alex SINGER.

It sports a front derailleur which is undoubtfully a Singer
it sports a quill seatpost without frame bolt as a few Singer
it sports hellenic seatstays as again a few Singer
and finally some modified Maxicar hubs, which have been seen only on a few Singer or Herse bicycles.
Here more pics








More info later on this !

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Now that is lovely! Looking forward to hearing more.

I agree, that really is lovely
Look forward to hearing and seeing more about it and also learning its back story, its history as such and how it came to you.

Jamie

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Ohhh what a shame you just missed the Transcontinental.

Looking forward to learning more about this bike, it looks absolutely fascinating.

Nice. Really finding a love an fascination with these.

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Well after a lengthy investigation, I must say, it may or not be a Singer !

The frame number is not stamped according to the Singer numbering habit
The top tube cable stops also differ a bit from the usual design.

You could say , well there is a much easier way : why don’t you ask the initial owner !?

Well I did but he does not remember at all ! The frame was ordered in 1950 ! and his memory does not recall.

The full story is that being short of funds , he had the frame done in a initial move, and then bought all the era best parts little by little. Hence the no signature on it.

So its probably a frame made to order for a friend of the Singer outfit -hence the front mech and hubs - but as not being complete, it lacked the usual Singer signature .

Or and its certainly not a disappointment, it could be from another well known french maker , ie Dujardin.

Dujardin are actually quite rarer than Singer and as admirable.

As was quite common at the time , framemakers did copy between themselves for certain features.

So Dujardin did also fancy hellenic seatstays, annular bearings bottom bracket and modified rear hub.
But he more usually had a nivex Derailleur with a support for the chain rather than the cyclo being on this machine


Here the same design for the rear mech and hub as my bicycle but on a Longoni ( another upmarket frenchmaker)





here a Singer with such a feature / Nivex and modified hub, same front mech and quill seatpost ( courtesy Jan Heine)








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Here a Singer with hellenic seatstays, same crankset, same front mech ( courtesy JP Weigle / Flickr)





Here a Dujardin with rear nivex , hellenic seatstays ( courtesy 200/ Raymond Henry)








More about this later

You have the best mystery machines I have ever seen
You should be writing cycling detective novels, based in the 50's of course

Jamie
(awaiting the next instalment)

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What a lovely bike. I can see why people are so interested in the French cycle industry of that period. I love all the little unique design touches from manufacturer to manufacturer. The complete opposite of todays groupset industry thinking.

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well, it should be remembered that these small "artisans constructeurs" were probably manufacturing a few hundred bikes per year only.
I would guess between 200 and 400 for most of the outfits - if not less - so total output was extremely limited compared to "industry giants".

Herse production over a span of about 40 years is estimated between 5 and 6000 only !

They took the time for details ! More difficult to assess is the price difference.
Will try to find figures , but I would expect these high end bikes were probably worth several months of pay for a industry worker.
And some makes were clearly targeting a upmarket segment ( engineer, doctors, lawyers, ..) which just before or after the second world war were still considering "cyclotourisme" as a sport and leisure activity.

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Anyway, be it a Singer or Dujardin, the bike has a collection of the most desirable parts of the period and is indeed THE mystery bike to me !

Now a little more details



The frame stay is modified with a support for the chain so that the wheel can be taken off easily

as the rear hub is not only a modified maxicar but also one which has a right modified side, so that the screws into it and it is much easier to undo the rear wheel.






The bottom bracket is again special as its an annular bearings one








The tubing is not the usual high end Reynolds 531 one, but a french RUBIS Chrome 45 Extra Leger

Could not weigh the frame alone but the machine is quite light for the period even with its quite heavy fenders and front luggage rack. It weighs about 12.5 kg





One of the surprsing thing about the bike is that the spokes were not stainless steel ( which was common for high end machines) so in poor condition

So I cleaned the rims, hubs and relaced the wheels

The rims are 650B Super Champion (blue sticker) found on most of the high end bikes









Freewheel is a French 4 speeds Moyne