vegasbike

Thank you, I had been researching and with the help of everyone on this fabulous forum.. I sort of came up with similar conclusions.... the fleur de lilles had me thinking marinoni and perhaps even Miele. Of course I originally thought that maybe if the fork was from marinoni then the rest of the frame was not...especially with the lack of seat stay enscriptions and cutout under bottom bracket. Then I thought perhaps its a french canadian build like the Mikado touring bike I once had...
In any case always fun to try and figure it out. In the end, the ride is all that matters...except when its winter and snowing and all one can do is dream of riding

vegasbike

Fantastic to learn that

vegasbike

Mystery solved?
after a quick search on T-Mar's suggestion of it being a Saki LDT, I find this thread with an almost identical serial #....
Big thanks!! although Id be more thankful if it were indeed a Marinoni lol

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...e-touring.html

cb400bill

Ryffranck?

seypat

Bingo!

cudak888 

Be thankful it isn't this Marinoni.






-Kurt

alcjphil

I don't think so but J P Ryffranck was one of several custom frame builders operating in Quebec at the time. His bikes are highly prized by collectors here. I have a beautiful Limongi built in Trois Rivieres Quebec by another custom Quebec builder and also a lovely Gilles Bertrand touring bike built in Hull(now Gatineau) Quebec. One should also not forget Le Crocco bikes which have a loyal following. I did own a Marinoni for awhile. Nice bike but it was a later TIG welded version. I used it as a TT bike until I traded it to a friend for a garage door opener, I still lust after a Ryffranck

seypat

Sad.

MauriceMoss

As you already got solid info on the frame itself, I'll just add that the fluer-de-lis panto on the fork crown is not a match to Marinoni (or Bernard Carre/Didier Louis, probably the other most frequent user of that symbol).
It is a match to Desmarais. Pretty sure Bob Desmarais is who Doug Fattic was thinking of.






I don't remember seeing a touring type bike from Desmarais before, so this fork is kind of interesting, but then there aren't a whole lot of examples out there.

seypat

Wow is all I can say!

cudak888 

Not exactly sure what to do with it at this point, really. Stripped it for parts and both post and stem are stuck (surprise).

-Kurt

Ross200

It this when someone is supposed to mention the OA bath? Tri bikes live a hard life.

JohnDThompson 

I suppose it's possible that the cantilever mounts aren't original, either, but were added around or after the time the fork substitution was made. That would explain the equal wear front and rear. Perhaps the double-eyelet fork ends were done at that time as well? Domed stay ends are typically done at the tubing mill, not by the builder (doming stay ends is a PITA by hand). The original fork ends could be pulled out, and double-eyelet ones installed, with radiused stay ends because that's much easier to do with hand tools.

Erzulis Boat 

Here is the frame. The fleur de lis is not the same, as these photos will attest. My memory was faulty evidently!

Funny story to go along with these pics. My ex-BIL brought the frame over from France, and it was in pretty good condition. He ended up getting a Gios, and then sold the frame to my buddy (that still has it, hence the pics). So it went from a very nice frameset to this in 15(?) years or so. I can put a name and a face to this bikes slow destruction! Everything he owns looks this way.

Local builder, Chanteloupe-en-Brie for a local race team (ex BIL racer). No identifying marks.



ETA- It is a 57cm frame with something like a 54.5TT and a sub 98cm wheelbase if I recall correctly. It's ridiculously nervous, and my buddy has crashed it multiple times after riding it to the local watering hole.

Lattz

although the riddle is solved, for the record and to aid future logo hunters, Wilier's "fleur de lis" is actually a spear, from the coat of arms of Trieste, it is not that obvious similar in monocolor like pantos and trikot logos though.

@Future CV member, drop me a thumbs up if you find this helpful 10+ years from now while trying to identify your bike.

Mad Honk 

I'm wondering if you are contemplating sending it to me to do those removals, and finish repairs. It seems all the bikes in south FL have some sort of top tube damage from rust. Smiles, MH

cudak888 

You are a madman, Dave!

-Kurt

Lattz

Some bikes (cheap and ridiculously rares as well) end up like this without moving a meter, kicked around in the back of a garage or even worse backyard. If he at least used it to some extent......

Lattz

How does that DT sound on knocking? Is there steel inside or even a gentle baking soda blast would put it into past tense?

Erzulis Boat 

He is at the watering hole a lot! So, yes, it could be worse. He sure does use it.

cudak888 

It won't cave under my fingers, so there may be hope. Might OA bath it when I do a batch of other parts with the LBS. Just for giggles.

-Kurt

zukahn1 

I would agree the frame likely Miki built and the rest of the bike is Willler.

omijay 

As someone else said sad. However, it is pretty common to see a Marinoni laying around the streets of Montreal in this condition or worse. I am near the university and I see at least one a week in this bad of shape locked down to a fence, street sign, bike stand or parking meter. I often wonder if they are abandoned or still in use. You often wish you could rescue them, but you cannot save them all. It says a lot about how well Marinoni sold his bikes in the local Montreal market for the last 40 plus years. You see vintage Marinoni's everywhere. My guess is the rust started up north and the bike took a ride down south on a motorhome with a snowbird.

cudak888 

Any of them on campus? Check with the university and ask what they do when they do a bike rack purge. Many universities require students to register their bikes so when the abandoned bikes pile up and they cut the locks, they know who to contact. Some get abandoned.

Ask the city too. It's sometimes offloaded to a towing company, but there's often a public works department that sorts it out and usually ends up scrapping whatever they wind up with. Saved some seized shared bikes that way.

-Kurt

Lattz

Yeah, by us the unis and the rail company auctions them, the city makes a 2 level sorting, as they operate LBSs to help people with various diabilities. They repair the repairable ones, or take apart the ones which are good for the parts bin, then the rest gets scrapped. Still 4-5 years ago there were a lot to be seen with the city"s red tag (meaning the death row, avoiding the selection process) but these days the thieves steal anything which is locked for more than 2 days, unless its a standard German 60s-70s city bike.