Albert Chiron found by @Filochard on LBC. Translation below.
Rare randonneur bike from the craftsman Albert Chiron. Craftsman high end frame builder, for connoisseur, big size height from axle to axle 62,5 cm by 57 cm in length of axis in axis, saddle ideal diagonal, wheel rim mavic céramic, hubs edco made in Switzerland, dynamo sanyo, support pump, luggage racks front and back, tyre 700x28, possibility of fitting 700x32, pannier back Gilles Berthoud, derailleur Shimano, crankset and pedal TA new, support carries bidon.
Another Albert Chiron found by @Filochard on LBC. Translation below.
Vintage randonneuse, less than 500 km, excellent condition, hand-built, Reynolds 531 tubing.
Triple T A chainrings, 4 custom chromed luggage racks front and rear.
Pair of new KARRIMOR panniers.
As you all know I like a story, the journey is part of the bikes history. This is in my eyes gorgeous and a superb rebuild, picture heavy. Owners translation below.
I took advantage of a short break in the weather to get the Novelly out and photograph it a little better.
I don't know if it's original, but I like this slightly art deco style chain case. With a 3-speed freewheel and a Simplex dropout, all it needs is a derailleur. But there's no threaded stud on the frame to attach the shifter.
Nice touch with the little metal bracket that connects the headlight to the ground via the rod, because non- conductive wooden mudguard. For the rear light, it's a piece of cable that connects it to earth. I'd really like to keep its metal outer cables. Very nice headlamp, a little dented but fine.
There's this bracket here that I don't know what it's for. An original chain case? For the derailleur spring because there's no lug under the chainstay?
I'm thinking of getting rid of the tyres which are new and fitting cream tyres to bring out the colour of the wooden rim.
In fact, I think I'm going to treat all 3 wooden parts - rims, mudguard and grips to the same shade of wood stain.
I haven't started unscrewing a single bolt on this bike yet. I'm looking at it, thinking about what I'm going to do with it, calculating how much I need to add to complete it (saddle, derailleur), trying to work out how to get the wiring harness from the rear light to the dynamo, under these very thin, almost flat mudguards.
In short, I'll tell you where I'm at:
I'd like to clean up the bike's lines: get rid of the luggage rack and turn it into a single-speed bike with a mono freewheel.
No derailleur, no plastic casing to add, just the essentials: steel and wood.
Let's start talking about the derailleur. I think this bike could well have been sold in the catalogue without a derailleur. It wouldn't be the first time we've seen a Simplex dropout without an original derailleur. What's more, the bike will have a very urban feel, and in Bordeaux, frankly, a single-speed is more than enough. And when I see the price of vintage derailleurs sold with their shifters, it tends to reinforce my idea.
A luggage rack? in town, a little rucksack and off you go with your little urban life. A luggage rack is useful in the countryside a crate, a bungee cord and off you go with the vegetables you've bought at the market.
I know I'm boring you a bit with my aesthetic considerations on this bike project, but as I'm counting my pennies at the moment, I don't want to do anything stupid. I don't want to detract from the soul of this bike, highlighting the material, in this case wood.
I did a few tests with a Brooks B17 saddle and luggage rack.
Everything went off without a hitch... well, almost, until I had to take care of removing the rear wheel.
I decided to dismantle both wheels because it would be more pleasant to sand and treat the rim and clean the spokes.
First of all, I had a big problem getting the tyres off. I broke one of my favourite Michelin tyre levers, which I've had for ten years. Grrrrr
Then I had a hard time unscrewing the spoke nipples. In the end, there were three left but I had to cut these 3 spokes because it was impossible to unscrew them. Especially as I was going easy on the penetrating oil for fear of staining the wood. And a bit of thread broke off in another nut.
These spoke nipples are big, I'm now going to be missing at least 4 and I haven't touched the front wheel yet, which I'll dismantle later to use as a model for reassembly.
This afternoon, I had a go at the spokes of the rear wheel. There's nothing to say, it's much easier and quicker when everything's out of the way. I also did some light sanding and polishing of the rim, it's going to be beautiful.
And then for recreation, I tackled the pretty headlight and the brand came to me EDELKO Breveté Sans Garantie Du Gouvernement.
I also took care of the frame this afternoon. I don't think it's very pretty and I think it's been repainted in its lifetime.
I've started sanding off the brown paint covering the two mudguards.
If the cost of a restored bike were measured in terms of the number of hours worked, this bike would be worth a fortune.
This stripping is very tedious. Especially as I couldn't get the rear light and headlight brackets out, nor the fork mounting bracket; they're fixed either with rivets (bracket), or with bolts whose flat screwdriver impression on the screw head no longer grips. So it's impossible to unscrew them without drilling. And as these are pretty wide heads with very short screws, I'm afraid I won't find any identical ones.
So I'm adapting.
What a mess I've been making since yesterday, bolts and nuts, GB pushrods, chain case, crankset, handlebars, brake callipers, brake handles, metal sheaths.
Since my return from Vierzon, I've been riding to toughen up my thighs. I hadn't yet set foot in the workshop again.
So this afternoon, I got back to work on the Novelly cleaning and greasing the hub of the dismantled wheel. This is so that everything will be ready when I get the 4 spokes I'm missing for the complete spoking of the wooden wheel.
Admittedly, this ‘PORTHOR - BH LUXE’ hub is heavy, all steel, with balls and no ball bearings, but you can really feel that it's quality. Once it's greased, when you turn the axle, you can feel the quality, it turns smoothly, with no play. I can't wait to see this finished wheel.
This afternoon, I spoke the rear wheel.
Then, using my cobbled-together centring stand and a level and plumb bob, I tried to centre and expose the wheel.
It's not going to be a piece of cake. The warping is quite pronounced (1 cm here and there) and where I should be pulling to centre the rim, the spoke heads are already sticking out of the nipple heads and I can't loosen the other side, which isn't very tight already.
So tomorrow I'm going to loosen everything up and retighten the left side first, then tighten the right. The opposite of what I've been doing, we'll see.
I've re-spoked the rear wheel almost from scratch by unscrewing all the spokes and re-tensioning them little by little, starting with the right side and then the left. I'm quite happy with the result because there's virtually no more warping or jumping and, above all, no more spoke heads that protrude so far from their nipples that they risk puncturing a tube. But they're a bit less tight than before.
I've also received the white Hutchinson Haussmann tyres I ordered and put the rear wheel on. But with the tyre, there's now a lot of jump and even a flat. So I'm going to wait for them to get into the right shape and loosen up.
The problem I hadn't spotted was that the rear wheel, which is firmly seated on its dropouts, isn't aligned with the seat tube.
As for the slightly crooked rear wheel, I tried it with another 650B wheel, and it's the same thing. It's not from my re-spoked wheel. But I suspected it might be.
So I made the rear dropout alignment tool. I worked on this alignment to achieve a result that was very, very close to perfect.
So I measured the frame, fixed to the workshop stand, with the seat tube strictly plumb.
The chainstays are the same length on the left and right and are at the same height from the ground.
The string test with measurements on the left and right of the seat tube reveals a difference of one mm, which is within tolerance.
Finally, I put on a 650 front wheel and a wooden rear wheel with a nice tyre and put the bike through the straight line test, which it passed perfectly.
So we'll leave it like that, the bike is relatively sound.
I also made the 4 pads from cork, first using a cutter to cut a neat rectangle and then a metal file to cut the two bevels that fit into the pad holder.
Well, the Novelty is 100% finished! I tried it out for +/- 3 kms, and it ran perfectly, with royal silence and comfort. Amazing!
As far as braking is concerned, the cork brake pads don't do the job too badly, but given the speed this bike allows, they're perfectly adequate.
I'm pretty happy with the result, and I've achieved my goal of making a nice, fast bike.
The rear eclectic harness route bothered me for a long time. I didn't want a cable that wrapped around the rod and then around the rear chainstay, as I've seen on some bikes. And as the mudguards have very little curvature and no fold to hide a wire in, it was a hassle!
So I came up with this:
The wire starts at the light, crosses the mudguard through a hole under the light, then runs under the wooden mudguard, fixed in the middle by small nails twisted into a rider. So it's invisible. Then it comes out under the bottom bracket, goes up under the diagonal tube held by two clamps and then goes to the dynamo. The crazy thing is, it works!
