French Racing Bicycles

[Canuk]

Peugeot PX10 1962

 

[Canuk]

Some close up details. The bike was Peugeot's top of the line full Reynolds 531 model featuring the twin cable Simplex 543 gears. Earlier models featured the Simplex 60 derailleur set, one of the most sought after pieces of french vintage equipment. Back in the earlier days of eBay, they were regularly selling for $5000+ per derailleur.

 

[Canuk]

1968 Sauvage Lejeune

 

[Canuk]

The standard Sauvage Lejeune decals consisted of Sauvage-Lejeune in an oval each side of the down tube and a vertical Lejeune one side of the seat tube and Sauvage on the other. This frame has 4 of the vertical seat tube Lejeune decals – 2 on the seat tube and 2 on the down tube. Photos of Jan Janssen n the 1968 Tour show him riding a bike with standard decals, indicating that this one was altered prior to Rebour drawing it.

 

[Canuk]

A simpler version of the Lejeune. Sauvage Lejeune brand racing bike marked "COUPRY". Georges Coupry was a former six-day racer and had opened a cycle shop on Boulevard de la Madeleine in Marseille. He made excellent quality bikes.

 

[Canuk]

Merckx riding a stock Peugeot px 10 1966

 

[Canuk]

Eddy Merckx cycling along side the Peugeot-BP-Michelin team car in April of 1966 during an early portion of that year’s Paris-Roubaix race.

Merckx would not win his first career Paris-Roubaix classic until two years later in 1968 - the first year that the starting point was moved from Pairs proper to the suburb of Compiègne, roughly 60 kilometers to the northeast.

 

[Canuk]

1964 Sauvage Lejeune

 

[Canuk]

Very nice Sauvage Lejeune bike identical to the one that the riders of the "Pelforth Sauvage Lejeune" team used in the mid-60s. Guy Epaud, a rider of this team and originally from the Montguyon region, rode the 1963 and 1964 Tours de France with a bike like this one.

Sauvage Lejeune frame and fork Reynolds 531 tubeset

Campagnolo first pattern record groupset

Crankset (53*44 chainrings)

Brooks Saddle (customized)

Mafac Brakes

 

[Canuk]

Some more close up details. Note heavily cut away Brooks Professional, with chamfered edges, trimmed all the way around. This was a specialist job performed by a professional saddle alterer. It was an expensive process involving removing the original leather, reshaping and cutting and then re-hammering with new copper rivets. It was a service really only available to professional riders.