I bought a Paris Sport during the first lockdown, back in May last year; I've ridden it for a few miles and am interested in finding out a bit more about it.
I'm not bothered about the value - I paid £37 for it and got a nice bike to ride that I'm intending to keep - but am interested in where and when it was built, whether there's a model name or number, and any catalogue photos. I'm assuming it's a low end model; there's no braze on for a bottle cage or rear derailleur and no tubing label. The only identifier is what I presume is a serial number stamped on the rear dropout, which is pictured below.
From what I've found in searches I think the bikes were made (using either imported French frames or frames built in house) and sold by Park Cycles of NJ. I may be wrong on this of course, but I'm very happy to be corrected. Assuming the bike was built and sold in the USA, I'm intrigued at how it ended up in a shed in rural Somerset. There's no way I'll ever find out, but the history of an object like this always interests me.
The seller I bought it from said he'd started a restoration, fitted a new back wheel (unfortunately he said he'd got rid of the original wheel) and lost interest. Probably for the best - the hub locknuts on the new wheel had been undone and refitted on the
outside of the dropouts!
For information the replacement rear wheel is a Weinmann rim on Quando hub. The front wheel is a Rigida rim, I can't quite make out the inscription on the hub. Brakes are CLB, the chainset's a Solida, and front and rear derailleurs are Shimano - I think they are probably also replacements as the rear mech is a SIS mech, and the shifters are (non-indexed) Sachs-Huret.
I bought it with fitted with Weinmann suicide brake levers, very grubby white handlebar tape and cable housings. I've replaced the levers with CLB levers, fitted a new chain and 6-speed freewheel, a bottle cage, Look Delta pedals, and treated it to a pair of 27 x 1-1/4 Conti Ultrasport 3 tyres, as the tyres fitted were cracked quite badly. I had to fit new bearings and regrease the bottom bracket as there was enough play for the crank arm to be scraping on the front mech - it's a French bottom bracket.
A few photos below - apologies for the state of the bike; I did 40 odd miles on some pretty rough roads yesterday and haven't got round to cleaning it properly yet. Many thanks, as always, for any information.
