Caminargent.

[colnagophiliac]

The French are good at quirky transport - think Citroen 2CV. Pierre Caminade came up with a great bicycling example seen here - a Nice-Evian randonneur.

The tubing is octagonal so cannot rotate within the "lug" castings in which they are retained by dozens of individual bolts. In theory the entire bike could be disassembled and rebuilt at will.

Two things are surprising: Surprising that for aluminium it is a very comfortable ride.
Surprising that for aluminium it is very heavy, although of course advertising
would have you think otherwise.

Definitely quirky bike of the month. ( now no longer owned )

 

[Old Ned]

I find these really interesting bikes. Any idea of the year? Late 30's (but could be younger?)

The Allvit rear gear mech is obviously '60's!

 

[colnagophiliac]

Re:

When I purchased it I was "informed" that it was from 1943. I never really believed that, after all there was the slight issue of a war etc. I think late 30's is a good estimate. Nice to Evian is at least 500kms and would have been a significant ride on this bicycle, war or not. After these photos were taken I polished the bike a bit - took ages - and it took on a lovely deep lustre, especially the Le Fol mudguards.
However, 1 month later it had all reverted back to the dullish (Al 02?) finish. I liked this bike but at the time was "finding my way" with what to collect and because nothing similar came up at the time I became distracted in other directions and periods.