cb400bill

"They're magically delicious!"

unworthy1

"...here's what BaCo used to do BITD:"
And confessing MY ignorance: who is/was BaCo MauriceMoss ?

(aside from the bacon flavored crumbly bits, all a part of this nutritious breakfast?)

Oh NVM: I just looked up the entry in CR but they have nothing to show except this:
"BaCo = Batifoulier et Collas the two owners/frame builders
located in Romainville, eastern suburbs of Paris"

Fredo76

In my opinion, four-leaf clovers are needed for a true Lucky Charms bike.

"I'm looking over,
A four-leaf clover,
That I overlooked before..."

I know, this isn't the 'Significance of Lucky Charms' thread - just sayin'.

DiabloScott

I have nothing to contribute but this scan from my folder. Winning Magazine 1991.

Bad Lag

ericlowney, isn't there some sort of LAW, that if you are going to post pics of a bike, an obviously AWESOME bike, that you have to show us the WHOLE bike. Isn't it against the law to just tease us with close up shots of little bits and pieces???

bamboobike4

This thread is Magically Delicious.

MauriceMoss

Yeah, sorry, I should have included more info there, but you found it.
And now I can't stop thinking about bacon...

BaCo used to make contract frames for other shops (like Wolhauser), racing teams (including ones labeled Lejeune, Mercier and Puch, for example) and occasionally you might see one actually sporting BaCo decals. I've also seen bikes that definitely look custom made for individual customers (with initials pantographed on the frame). If you see stay end treatment like this, it's guaranteed to be a BaCo made frame, regardless of the decals:




Here is an article about BaCo from some French magazine back in the 70s (it sounds like it was written not too long after BaCo was founded). The pics include the same cutouts as on the examples I posted earlier, so I assume that was their fanciest model/option.




Here's the extracted text from the article:

La société BACO, contraction des deux Noms patronymiques de ses fondateurs et actuels responsables : MM. Batifoulier et Collas, a ses ateliers à Romainville, à proximité immediate de l'autoroute A3 et à cinq minutes de la porte de Bagnolet.
Selon leurs propres termes, ce son exclusivement des Cadreurs, spécialisés dans la fabrication des cadres de vélos de course, sur mesures et en demi-série, a la cadence d'environ 200 exemplaires par mois, la plupart livrés « brut de lime ».

Actuellement, le nec-plus-ultra en la matière, c'est le cadre entièrement en Reynolds 753. Baco en a déjà sorti plus de 110 dont une quarantaine utilisés par des coureurs professionnels, depuis juin 76,
date de l'apparition sur le marché de ce nouveau tube ultra léger et cependant résistant. A titre d'exemple, en taille 55, un cadre tout en 753 avec sa fourche, ne pèse que 2,050 kg et 2,300 kg en taille 61.

Au départ, avant brasage, il y a une heure et demie de préparation des différents raccords. Un tel cadre est entièrement brasé à l'argent, et il faut compter 11 heures de travail pour le terminer,
dont plus de deux heures et demie à la lime, mais le résultat est vraiment sans bavures, avec tous les raccords amincis et diminués avant montage, pattes Campa
diminuées et percées, ajourage et diminué de la boîte. Sur ces 753, ne sont sablées que les seules parties brasées, afin d'éviter les déformations causées par le martelage du grenaillage à basse pression.

Travaillant pour les Professionnels du Cycle, les cadres de demi-série sont eux, construits suivant la demande en Reynolds 531, Super-Vitus, Columbus ou Ishiwata, avec pattes Campa, Huret ou Simplex. Les boîtes de pédalier sont soit la Gargatte Super ou encore la Roto italienne et les têtes de fourche, des Cinelli ou des Wagner.

Ces modèles de demi-sèrie demandent 8 heures de fabrication en moyenne et sont construits à partir de cotes répertoriées une fois pour toutes. A titre d'exemple, voici quelles sont les différentes mesures indispensables à la taille des tubes, pour un cadre standard de 53 x 54 (53 étant la longueur du tube de selle et 54 celle di tube horizontal) ; tube de selle : 515, tube horizontal : 520, tube diagonal : 588, douille : 110, montants : 492, bases : 433, fourches ; pivot : 170, fourreaux : 365, cintre : 55.

Si la commande sort de ces normes, si le client réclame un produit hors cotes, ce qui est tout à fait son droit, le cadre est alors fabriqué sur mesures.

Dans ce but, un « marbre » spécialement conçu, permet de réaliser tous les modèles de cadres. Cet appareil, a géométrie variable, autorise des variations d'angles de plusieurs degrés, pour le tube de selle etle tube de direction.

En général, les cadres ne sont pas livrés émaillés, encore qu'ils puissent l'être, surtout pour la province, plutôt démunie on émailleurs au four. Ce travail est alors confié a un spécialiste parisien.

Mentionnons enfin que la Sté Baco effectue toutes les réparations de cadres, même ceux étrangers à sa fabrication, ce service étant toutefois réservé exclusivement à sa clientèle professionnelle habituelle.

unworthy1

Thanks for this very edifying (as always) follow-up MauriceMoss !
BaCo certainly had some style!
If you have nothing better to do maybe consider sending all the above to Classic Rendezvous, since they could readily use this on their empty BaCo page!
Thanks again

Brad L 

It's well known that Colnago started using the Club (Asso di Fiori) logo after Dancelli's win in 1970. However, prior to this, Colnago used a similar cutout in the lugs. I've read that these are Fleur de Lis and an homage to his time as an apprentice at Gloria.

My 1969 Colnago Super

Rocket-Sauce 

Inner fork legs on my '84 Peter Mooney




None of the other lugs have cutouts of any kind and are quite short-point and highly filed (very thin!).
Older pic of the bike (now has different wheels)

repechage

Brian took those reinforcements and reworked the stampings-
i question the authorship of this paint but not the metalwork-

BMC_Kid 

What an awesome bike! And a retro-mod build very similar to my Tesch S-22, right down to the Thomson seat post and stem (can't tell if the handlebars are Thomson as well). Is that an 11-speed Record group?

clubman 

I'm surprised there's no Italian cutouts with icons from the card games Briscola or Scopa. Or perhaps there are. I used to play a little as a young man working on the railroad. Toronto had a massive Italian population CN Railway was one company where Italians could get a job without speaking a word of English.

Rocket-Sauce 

Good eye!
Yes, Thomson stem and post. Nashbar carbon bars. Brooks Cambium carbon saddle.
Campagnolo Record 10speed.
Current wheels: Campy Record hubs, H Plus Son Archetype rims, Sapim CX-Ray spokes (built by me).

Rides great. And fits 28s easy.

BMC_Kid 

My first choice of wheels for my Tesch was a set of Boyd’s ceramic rims on a set of black Campy Record hubs and Sapim CX Ray spokes. Unfortunately, the rims were nowhere to be found so, my next choice was a set of H Plus Son Archetype rims. Literally the day I was planning ordering the rims, someone posted for sale a built up Boyd’s wheelset using their hubs and ceramic rims, so I snagged them. If it hadn’t been for the posting on eBay I would have had the same wheelset as yours. I still might build this set up for a Pinarello Montello that I will be building up next. I think they make those rims if I am not mistaken in a grey finish.





Again, great looking bike!

satbuilder 

Here you go, well, 3-leaf, anyway.

Lattz

There's not enough chianti in the world to convince any Italian guys to file those in the lug, the French card symbols do the job without major effort

tcs

Hmm. Hmm.

gearbasher

I used to play Briscola with my Sicilian Grandmother. She called it (phonetically) "Breeshk". I always called it Brisk. We used a standard deck and removed the 8s,9s and 10s.
Scoring was Ace=11 3=10 K=4 J=3 Q=2
Man, I haven't played in over 40 years.

madpogue