Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
On Saturday I popped to the tip to shift some junk. I spotted a pile of old bikes and the one on the top looked interesting. Very rusty but had an old-type derailleur and lots of alloy parts. It looked mostly complete. They don't normally let you take anything but I always ask anyway and, to my surprise, this time the guy said he'd look the other way! I didn't get a chance to look too closely so in the car it went and this is what it looked like when I got it home:
I thought I'd picked up a 30s or 40s British bike tbh. On closer inspection, I could see quite a lot of it was French from the René Herse and Huret components. I posted these pics in the French Randonneurs thread and it was quickly identified as a late 40s / early 50s René Herse. It's pretty much complete apart from a missing rear rack and rear cantilevers. I dip into the French Randonneurs thread from time to time, but I don't know anything about French bikes at all. This thing seems to be quite rare so here are some detail shots, as found (split over 2 posts because maximum 10 attachments and I'll put them in as thumbnails so it doesn't take up too much space):
![rh01.jpg rh01.jpg](https://www.retrobike.co.uk/data/attachments/630/630652-4e4c2d84fe27646fdabee2d2eb96d528.jpg)
I thought I'd picked up a 30s or 40s British bike tbh. On closer inspection, I could see quite a lot of it was French from the René Herse and Huret components. I posted these pics in the French Randonneurs thread and it was quickly identified as a late 40s / early 50s René Herse. It's pretty much complete apart from a missing rear rack and rear cantilevers. I dip into the French Randonneurs thread from time to time, but I don't know anything about French bikes at all. This thing seems to be quite rare so here are some detail shots, as found (split over 2 posts because maximum 10 attachments and I'll put them in as thumbnails so it doesn't take up too much space):
![rh02.jpg rh02.jpg](https://www.retrobike.co.uk/data/attachments/630/630653-56df1d541a6ed38bea29fcb254db6414.jpg)
![rh03.jpg rh03.jpg](https://www.retrobike.co.uk/data/attachments/630/630654-d86f5c11004588cd1dcc4b3010384b07.jpg)
![rh04.jpg rh04.jpg](https://www.retrobike.co.uk/data/attachments/630/630655-8fe4a26715bd4720714235c63e7038ba.jpg)
![rh05.jpg rh05.jpg](https://www.retrobike.co.uk/data/attachments/630/630656-bf118c4189f1f5984d6984bef380a66c.jpg)