Anyone ever run across a Roger Riviere?
06-07-23, 01:43 PM
#51
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roger reviere
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.
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.
leather racing saddles, continental tires, cinelli bars
06-08-23, 01:16 PM
#52
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Bikes: The keepers: 1958 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix, 1968 Ranger, 1969 Magneet Sprint, 1971 Gitane Tour de France, 1973 Raleigh Tourist, 3 - 1986 Rossins, and a '77 PX-10 frame in process.
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Don't plan on putting too much money into that frame. I finally found one about ten years ago, meticulously restored it, and then finally took it out on a ride. What a disappointment! At the time, I also owned a Peugeot UO-8, considered one of the better low end bicycles of the era, and I kinda expect the Roger Riviere to be about the same quality minus the good paint job. To be polite, the Riviere frame was dead in comparison to the Peugeot. Rode the bike for a couple of months, and sold it to another collector who had a love of obscure French brands. I definitely feel a bit sorry to all those customers were sold them to back in the Seventies, and the bike was nowhere near as good as a low-end Raleigh or even the Astra.
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“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
