Jonny69
Senior Retro Guru
On Saturday I popped to the tip to shift some junk. I spotted a pile of old bikes and the one on the top looked interesting. Very rusty but had an old-type derailleur and lots of alloy parts. It looked mostly complete. They don't normally let you take anything but I always ask anyway and, to my surprise, this time the guy said he'd look the other way! I didn't get a chance to look too closely so in the car it went and this is what it looked like when I got it home:
I thought I'd picked up a 30s or 40s British bike tbh. On closer inspection, I could see quite a lot of it was French from the René Herse and Huret components. I posted these pics in the French Randonneurs thread and it was quickly identified as a late 40s / early 50s René Herse. It's pretty much complete apart from a missing rear rack and rear cantilevers. I dip into the French Randonneurs thread from time to time, but I don't know anything about French bikes at all. This thing seems to be quite rare so here are some detail shots, as found (split over 2 posts because maximum 10 attachments and I'll put them in as thumbnails so it doesn't take up too much space):
I thought I'd picked up a 30s or 40s British bike tbh. On closer inspection, I could see quite a lot of it was French from the René Herse and Huret components. I posted these pics in the French Randonneurs thread and it was quickly identified as a late 40s / early 50s René Herse. It's pretty much complete apart from a missing rear rack and rear cantilevers. I dip into the French Randonneurs thread from time to time, but I don't know anything about French bikes at all. This thing seems to be quite rare so here are some detail shots, as found (split over 2 posts because maximum 10 attachments and I'll put them in as thumbnails so it doesn't take up too much space):
