Vintage French randonneuer's and porteurs.
- Thread starter Guinessisgoodforyou
- Start date
Guinessisgoodforyou
Retro Wizard
Guinessisgoodforyou
Retro Wizard
Guinessisgoodforyou
Retro Wizard
Guinessisgoodforyou
Retro Wizard
One thing that perplexes me about the French Randonneurs , are the racks.
They look - and they are - pretty puny. Some are simply riveted to the mudguards, which ironically have some substance about them generally being made of AL. Often you see a few bits of twisted metal sort of hanging on the mudguards - balanced in thin air - not supported at all by the frame (unlike the Goeland above).
No way you could do camping and be fully loaded with an old cotton tent for example. There's barely room for a picnic too, although that could have gone in a musette I suppose.
My only theory is that these were really built for light touring, for a long weekend away, perhaps starting out by train, and staying at the myriad of hotels, gites, bistro's and what not. There's probably just enough space on those racks for a change of clothes, puncture repair kit, and that is it. Thinking more while I'm writing this blurb, perhaps the more higher end Alex Singer type built bikes were more orientated towards the serious longer distance touring folk. Just idle thoughts.
Perhaps with more wine I may nail "Why". Modern day, I guess it's this type of thing: https://creditcardbiketouring.com/
{ Porteurs of course something different entirely - a rack made to measure for it's load. }
They look - and they are - pretty puny. Some are simply riveted to the mudguards, which ironically have some substance about them generally being made of AL. Often you see a few bits of twisted metal sort of hanging on the mudguards - balanced in thin air - not supported at all by the frame (unlike the Goeland above).
No way you could do camping and be fully loaded with an old cotton tent for example. There's barely room for a picnic too, although that could have gone in a musette I suppose.
My only theory is that these were really built for light touring, for a long weekend away, perhaps starting out by train, and staying at the myriad of hotels, gites, bistro's and what not. There's probably just enough space on those racks for a change of clothes, puncture repair kit, and that is it. Thinking more while I'm writing this blurb, perhaps the more higher end Alex Singer type built bikes were more orientated towards the serious longer distance touring folk. Just idle thoughts.
Perhaps with more wine I may nail "Why". Modern day, I guess it's this type of thing: https://creditcardbiketouring.com/
{ Porteurs of course something different entirely - a rack made to measure for it's load. }
Mickeyspinn
rBotM Winner
Durifort is Vitus!
Mickeyspinn
rBotM Winner
That is lovely!
Rod_Saetan
Old School Grand Master
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I've seen, refurbished, sold whatever loads of French bikes over the years, and I would roughly put them into two camps: mass-produced by one of the big brands = annoying, poorly executed, badly finished and hugely overbuilt; handbuilt in a small shop with a real persons name on the downtube = marvellous, beautifully made and finished, always worth the time and money to fix them up.
Its reductive I know, and only my opinion but I never want to try and 'renovate;' a 1970s mid-range Peugeot ever again.
I have one Frenchie, which I bought from down the road as it was pretty cheap and had a pair of Phil Wood hubs on it, after collecting it from the eBay seller and having a chat and then riding it 3 miles home it was clear I'd be keeping it! It was built for her in the mid 80s by a shop called Rando Cycles in Paris, she was told that they often got other builders to produce their frames and allegedly this was built by Berthoud. It is a classic lugged touring frame with BSC headset and BB and is the *perfect* size for me, because of its 00s horrible thick powder coat and no decals it became a commuter/child carrier though, but it will get a rebuild at some point in the future.
Its reductive I know, and only my opinion but I never want to try and 'renovate;' a 1970s mid-range Peugeot ever again.
I have one Frenchie, which I bought from down the road as it was pretty cheap and had a pair of Phil Wood hubs on it, after collecting it from the eBay seller and having a chat and then riding it 3 miles home it was clear I'd be keeping it! It was built for her in the mid 80s by a shop called Rando Cycles in Paris, she was told that they often got other builders to produce their frames and allegedly this was built by Berthoud. It is a classic lugged touring frame with BSC headset and BB and is the *perfect* size for me, because of its 00s horrible thick powder coat and no decals it became a commuter/child carrier though, but it will get a rebuild at some point in the future.
