smontanaro 

I'm continuing to thin the herd. Next up is an Auotomo Champion du Monde from the mid-50s (I think most likely 1955, based on the serial number). The seat tube is about 59-60cm center-to-top. The top tube is about 53cm center-to-center. I can't explain the extremely short top tube other than that I heard that's how the French thought race bikes should be proportioned in that era. (It also has pretty extreme seat tube and head tube angles. I can measure them if you're interested, but >74º) The short top tube makes the long stem understandable (and useful).

It came to me looking like this:


It now looks like this:


More pictures are here. If there's something I've missed or that you want in more detail, let me know. Happy to take more pix.

Though it is still very much a patina pony (my made up term), it took a fair amount of work to go from A to B. The two main efforts were:

• getting rid of as much rattle can black spray paint as possible without doing too much further damage to the remnants of the original paint
• sourcings parts which, while mostly not super-correct for the bike, at least look the part.

The frame came with a steel stem (probably Titan or Cinelli, but no firm idea), Weinmann red dot brake levers (way too new for the bike, but cool/interesting in their own right), Stronglight cottered bottom bracket cups, Nuovo Record spindle(!!!) and Stronglight Competition (I think) headset. The NR spindle landed in the bottom bracket drawer. Everything else remains part of the finished product. The missing (but now present) bits are:

• Simplex Tour de France five-speed rear derailleur and matching frame-mounted shift lever
• Simplex Competition lever-operated front derailleur
• Stronglight steel cottered crank (model 52?, 55? w/ 50/47 rings)
• Lyotard pedals
• MAFAC Dural Forge brakes
• FB hubs laced to Fiamme red label tubular rims ("look the part"), Regina freewheel and mismatched Simplex skewers
• Ideale 90 saddle (w/Brooks clamp)

It took approximately forever to find a suitable cottered crank spindle. It only took slightly less time to find a TdF derailleur. Given the era, I suspect a four-speed would have been correct, but I never encountered one. I eventually found a five-speed and stopped looking.

Included with the sale are a correct Automoto head badge (needs a bit of work), two rolls of black Newbaum's cloth tape and two three-speed TdF derailleurs (one of which might be incomplete, can't recall). I can also throw in a couple other Simplex skewers, but they might be worn out and only good for parts.

I'm asking $500 OBO plus actual shipping costs.

beech333

pm sent

smontanaro 

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cocoabeachcrab