Question about ELVISH Bike

[icashjk]

I got my hands on a old school Elvish 10 speed road bike. It has Wing nuts on the wheels, old school pedals the rims are a bit rusted and the tires are flat. So I am wondering if anyone know anything about them? It also has the name Fontan on the front forks. I will post a pic tomorrow of it. Any help would be awesome.

Thanks

 

[zimbob]

I assume it was made deep underground by elves...

Wait, that's not right

Victor Fontan was a French racer, both prior to, and after the First World War, and according to Wikipedia he was sponsored by a local firm called The Elvish Bicycle Company in the 1928 TdF.

Have you any idea of age on your bike?

Id assume it's produced by the Elvish company mentioned, presumably the lettering on the forks is harking back to their TdF days...

Be interested to see a pic pf it.

 

[icashjk]

here are some pictures

 

[icashjk]

also on the bottom the serial # is CA7671.76

 

[David B]

Late follow-up to the thread; it would appear that Elvish sponsored riders into the 70s, but I don't know how long beyond that the company itself survived [1]. A selection of Elvish team jerseys can be found here:

http://velosvintage.over-blog.com/artic ... 81701.html

Emerald green would appear to be the consistent feature.

David

[1] Feel free to insert your own corny "Elvish has left the building" gags.

 

[Rich34]

According to the site David mentions, Victor Fontan was a fairly successful local racer in South-West France, and was a professional from 1923 to 1930. In 1928 and 1930 Fontan created his own brand of bikes and in 1930 went into some kind of partnerhsip with Elvish.

Elvish were created in 1883 and were made in Southampton. The factory was destroyed durning the First World War and a Frenchman bought the rights to the name and had bikes made in Bordeaux. They were popular with local racers. They were also made for a long time in Pau, in South-West France near the Pyrenees.

Any pictures of the derailleurs etc? Nice bike that, and quite unusual.

 

[David B]

Elvish were created in 1883 and were made in Southampton.

Cheers for the snippet. I'd never have thought what seemed like a purely French brand had actually started off here in Hampshire!

David

 

[Rich34]

When I'm trying to be controversial I always enjoy telling my neighbours in France that the Brits invented everything that France does well (Bordeaux - wine, Cote d'Azur - tourism, South West - rugby etc.). So I'll add this to the anecdotes as further proof!

 

[David B]

When I'm trying to be controversial I always enjoy telling my neighbours in France that the Brits invented everything that France does well (Bordeaux - wine, Cote d'Azur - tourism, South West - rugby etc.). So I'll add this to the anecdotes as further proof!

Oh, you forgot champagne (allegedly); so the tale goes, until British glassmakers developed bottles strong enough to cope with the pressure of the carbon dioxide, it was a real hit-and-miss affair.

David

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

I don't know about the bike but, "There's a guy works down the chipshop swears he's elvish..."

Looks well worth a bit of tlc to me.