Vintage French randonneuer's and porteurs.

Guinessisgoodforyou · Tuesday at 07:12

Post 1459 Motobecane FED restoration. The FED now makes sense, thanks.
Post 1874 and 1884 two Motobecanes , the owners descriptions are very thorough and the latter CT3 mentions randonneuse federale. I wish my french was better, then the significance wouldn't have been missed

Guinessisgoodforyou · Tuesday at 08:41

1981 Peugeot Super randonneur. A barn find. Apparently a rare bike because its equipped with all of the optional goodies. Owners translation below.

It's a Peugeot Super Randonneur, we'll have to see what year it is.
Tubes 103 Carbolite frame
Triple chainrings (Stronglight?) 30 40 50 I think
Simplex derailleurs
Mafac brakes, but not Racer brakes
Freewheel 14 - 23
Very oxidised steel front and rear racks
Front and rear panniers
Maillard front hubs
Normandy rear hubs with an 81 (year?)
Rigida ‘Super Champion’ aluminium rims with 700 by 35.
I'm not taking any photos tonight as my phone is taking photos in scratch blue and white.
I weighed it when I arrived because I thought it was a bit heavy and indeed the thing weighs its weight: 16kg8 phew!

Well I've cleaned up the beast and I've taken the lead panniers off.
Here are a few views of it when it arrived, still in its original condition
I cleaned it up to get a better look at the real state of it
The absence of the panniers has completely changed its appearance.
I've weighed the frames 3kg100g and the bike comes to 13kg700, which is more reasonable, when we carried it to move it around, the weight was really noticeable
What makes me laugh is that I nearly bought one in 98 (probably one of the last years) I'll have to look but I may still have the catalogue I didn't pick it up because it was a 700. It's amazing but it didn't change between 79 and 98!
I'm going to keep everything, but I'll be riding it in this configuration with only the front rack (if I can get it to come back scratch as it's really attacked. I'll probably change the saddle.

Guinessisgoodforyou · Tuesday at 08:43

Fin.

Guinessisgoodforyou · Tuesday at 13:19

1980s Meral randonneur, a beautiful bike in nice countryside. Owners translation below.

Here's a quick presentation of my Méral hiker that was out in the sun yesterday: if I remember correctly, it's an 82, but I'm not sure.
It's equipped with:
All Vitus 788
Shimano 600 Arabesque front and rear derailleurs + shifters
Mavic 500 hubs
Mavic rims
Mafac brakes
Brooks Professional saddle
Laprade seatpost, which will be replaced by a vintage Simplex SLJ that's lying around the garage.
Chapak bags
Aluminium mudguards
Belleri handlebars
Cibié rear lighting.
Michelin Dynamic Classic tyres that everyone tells me are rubbish.
The luggage and bag racks are not Méral, unfortunately, but I'd love to be able to make some to the original dimensions
I'm looking for the bottom bracket dynamo.

Guinessisgoodforyou · Tuesday at 13:23

Original 1950s Tornado. Check the paint finish, headlight, speedo in headlight, racks. Very nice.

non-fixie · Tuesday at 18:11

Guinessisgoodforyou said:
The Motobecane catalogues I've posted are 1974 onwards. One from memory is an American issue. No mention I can see of Federal. Do you know the dates of the catalogues above? The steel rim comment made me laugh

The Gitane page is from a 1973 catalogue. I'm not sure about the Motobécane page, but the "FED" model was still in the catalogue as late as 1978: