Ephgrave

zz

dweenk

Sam, you need 10 posts to be able to upload photos. So you can reply to me and make other comments (up to 5 per day) in order to pad your count.

TenGrainBread 

MAFAC centerpulls marked "Dural Forge" are on the earlier side for the Racer brakes, 50s or 60s. The brakes were introduced in the early 50s and the "Racer" badge wasn't put on the brakes 'til the early 70s.

With brazed-on centerpull bosses, I would guess the bike is a somewhat upper-end bike. This was only a common feature on upper-level production and custom bikes. Small production outfits like Meral and Follis were known to use the feature sometimes on semi-custom or small-run models. It was a very popular feature on full-custom constructeur bikes as well, especially 700C "sportif"-style bikes.

63rickert

Dural forgee stamping together with red plastic bushings puts you in 1969. No obvious visible red bushing means earlier than that. Racer only means later. Inventory overhang blurs dates a bit. Those brakes work very well indeed.

Feldman

If they just have "Mafac Dural Forge" stamped on them, they are Racers older than @1970. They have brass bushings in the arms--the later ones stamped "Mafac Racer" have nylon bushings. Not a big difference between the two but having the posts brazed on does make a little more powerful brake with a little firmer feel at the lever--but not by much. Don't try to use "authentic" pads or cables, use modern consumables on Mafacs and you end up with an excellent set of brakes.

juvela

-----

Cycles Courtois was a retail shop located in Poitiers

successor entity termed Culture Velo a Chasseneuil

here is a randonneur constructed with MAFAC Competition braze-on centrepulls and dated by owner as 1977 -













For comparison here is an early '80's road machine. Its brake set is an odd mix of MAFAC 2000 centrepull front caliper, CLB side pull rear caliper, paired with Weinmann levers.




---

Seems likely that Courtois badged cycles represent contract produced items but no hard information as yet...

-----

bulgie 

That's a pretty bike. I find a couple little details I could quibble with, but overall it "cleans up nice".
The Campy decal on the chainstay cracked me up. I see Campy hubs, maybe seatpost, and that's it. Did I miss anything? I'm not one to talk, I once had a bike where the only Campy part was the decal.

Dropouts look like Shimano SFR, but Gipiemme made a near-exact knock-off.

Any guesses on the frame shop? We may never know unless we see invoices; details are all a bit too generic.

I agree with Feldman about using better modern rubber for the brakes. Just wanted to mention, in case anyone hasn't seen them, Koolstop makes near-perfect repops of the Mafac 4-dot pads. "Salmon" color is reputed to stop better in the rain, can't say I've noticed that but it must be true if everyone says it. But the black ones are more correct for formal wear to fancy-dress parties, and they stop pretty good.

Mark B in Seattle

gugie 

I can vouch for salmon Koolstops. My best braking non-disc bike has MAFAC Competitions with salmon Koolstops, did me right, braking with confidence on the notorious downhill section after the Cypress climb at Eroica California, and I'm no lightweight.

juvela

-----

cycle owner states frame ends Yoshi

Tullio transfers -

my guess would be they were fitted by framebuilder

assembly likely would have been performed at retail shop, hence the apparent contradiction...

-----

scarlson 

No way! I lived in Poitiers when doing a year abroad in undergrad in 2008 and I commuted on an entry-level Courtois road bike that I bought at the local pawn shop. I slapped fenders, rear rack, and dynamo lights onto it to make it a decent commuter. I always wondered why nobody outside the area had any idea what I was talking about when I told them I rode a Courtois!

I'll try and dig up some pictures. It had clubs in the logo like a Colnago, which I thought was a little bit trademark infringement, but it rode ok. It had English threading in the places that mattered. What more could a college student want?

That seems right based on having had one in my hands. My impression was that it was nice quality, but not particularly extra-special or artisanal in any way.

francophile 

First thing I noticed, and the Campy logo on the head tube. Is that an NR cup I see peeking out on the non-drive side or is it a Mavic sealed BB?

I managed to pick up almost 100pr of Mafac blocks from someone who had them sealed airtight for years a while back, still have zero-damn-clue what to do with them, but they're shockingly not any harder than they should be, I assume due to lack of contact with air. I find the salmon Koolstop pads to be a little more springy/softer for sure, almost too much so.

gugie 

Shortening the straddle cable will compensate for that. Modulation is fantastic. Hand strength increases as the lever compresses, I've found - super stiff brakes don't allow my hand to get into my "strength zone", too "springy" and they'll bottom out before maximum braking power is achieved. It's one of those things that's dependent on the individual rider, methinks.

Ephgrave

Hi thanks for the pics. Nice looking machine.

Ephgrave

I think this is 50's / 60's as the the rear ends are not cast, they are pressed steel but do have an integral gear hanger. The lugs have cut outs in them similar to the Blue frame on this tread.
Thank you for your help with this

TenGrainBread 

Thanks for the info. Hopefully you should be nearing the post limit to post pictures. If you need help posting them, let us know. You can use the forum picture upload function or a third party hosting site like Flickr that gives you a line of BBCode to insert.

It is a common misconception in the English-speaking world that the "Depose" on the Stronglight cranks is the model name. The French term for "trademark" is "marque déposée". The actual model name is 49D.

All the other components you list point to a 60s bicycle. Looking forward to pictures!

juvela

-----

regarding BB assembly on blue machine -

owner states BB assembly Stronglight

if you open the image showing the left side of the BB area you can see that lockring is alloy and bearing cup is clearly marked "STRONGLIGHT FRANCE"

frankish posters write that at the Poitiers location customers were able to select their becane "piece-by-piece"

---

here is a later '70's midliner -




---

late '70's road machine converted to fixed -




-----

Ephgrave

I thought that the way The badge was worded gave idea to its age.

Ephgrave

I looked at the frame numbers on head column, & bottom bracket they are the same. which is good , it is EF3.

Ephgrave

I have some pics now of the details of the frame & forks.

TenGrainBread 

Fun-looking bike, not something you see every day. I've no idea the maker but it does say higher-end, semi-custom production bike to me. The frame has some hints here and there of a shop with efficiency rather than perfection on its mind - the pinholed brazing on the brake mounts, for example. But the overall frame is not something you'd buy off-the-shelf. There is some good attention-to-detail like the neatly finished stay ends at the rear dropouts.

The bracket on the non-drive-side chainstay just under the brake caliper is for a rim/sidewall generator for lighting. A common feature on decent randonneur and camping bikes of the era.

Post up some pictures of the frame and some close-ups of the seat cluster. That might help with an ID.

juvela

-----

Hello Sam,

thank you for the photos. these should aid the forum's experts to give you some solid information.

the stamped ends with the forged gear hanger make me wonder if they may be something the builder created on their own by adding a Campag Nr. 80/1 to an existing stamped dropout.


-----

francophile 

I'm glad someone's eyes can still see print that small

As for me, I see the "FR" letters when I put on some magnifiers, but I'll take your word for it on the rest

The beveled-edge lock ring that's slightly off-color reminds me a lot of the Mavig 600-series threadless BB.

juvela

-----

Here is one more example. This time in bare metal. It exhibits some similarities to both subject machine and to blue cycle...













-----

juvela

------

This is how it appears following completion of restoration and reassembly -








-----

Ephgrave

juvela
That is a job well done, looks really good.
Are you going to put toe clips on, I can't ride with out.