Originally Posted by sykerocker

This one came out of rereading Redneckwes' thread on the Raleigh Gran Sport - something I've always had in the back of my mind:

Back when I was wrenching for A.R. Adams during the Bike Boom, we carried a couple of extra bike lines besides the usual Schwinn/Raleigh/Columbia. This is because back then it was almost impossible to get enough bikes to keep the showroom stocked for a week at a time. Schwinn's were always pre-sold a week or two before that month's delivery arrived, Raleigh's were almost as bad. To keep the stocks full we carried Astra (aka Motobecane by another name, but with Huret Allvit) and something called a Roger Rivere.

Strictly bottom line French ten speed, in quality about a step and a half below a UO-8. The frame (21-1/2, 23-1/2, 25-1/2" sizes) was straight gauged lugged steel, available in either flat yellow or flat orange, with a paint job that had absolutely no gloss to it, and looked like rattle can that had been baked. Maybe black painted headtube lugs. Memory's a bit dim on that point. Foil stick-on decals, just the down tube and head tube.

Typical bottom line components. Simplex Prestige front, rear, and the cheap levers. "Racer" brakes (design but not construction copies of Mafac Racers). Generic steel cottered cranks, generic headset. Lyotard pedal copies. Ava stem, steel bars, steel seat post, the saddle was a rounded wedge shaped lump of hard nylon - I remember we had a nice side business in replacing the saddle with something more comfortable. Steel 27x1-1/4" Rigida rims, cheap hubs with wingnuts front and rear.

Anyone ever see one for sale? I ran across one about two years ago on eBay, but it was 21-1/2, battered, and didn't have the original fork. Would love to find a 23-1/2 frameset to build up someday. Yeah, it ain't worth much, but the memories of back then are.