Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.topher1
09-02-11, 05:28 PM
Can you help establish the origin and/or value of this bicycle?
My father was a rabid amateur cyclist in the UK before WW II. He emigrated to the USA in 1951 bringing several bicycles with him. He recently died and I now have several of them and am in the process of putting them back on their wheels. I have been unable to identify one of them and wonder if anyone can help or recommend a source.
The metal tag on the head bracket says only Bekaert. The seat tube has numerous fluer de lis on a white field and the label on the down tube says LEULLIOT in large letters. On either side of that in smaller letters it says VELO ROUEN. Some of the fittings are French (Huret).
On the 1951 export documentation it is listed as circa 1939 and frame number 2055.
I assume it is French but have been unable to find anything about this bicycle maker on the internet. According to Wikipedia, Jean Leulliot was manager of the French team that won the Tour de France in 1937 and then had a rather colorful and contentious relationship with French Nationalists, organizing the alternative 1942 Circuit de France under Nazi sponsorship.
If you want to see a higher res version of the attachment go to: http://www.irrational1.deviantart.com/#/d48n0gp
Thanks in advance,
Chris
My father was a rabid amateur cyclist in the UK before WW II. He emigrated to the USA in 1951 bringing several bicycles with him. He recently died and I now have several of them and am in the process of putting them back on their wheels. I have been unable to identify one of them and wonder if anyone can help or recommend a source.
The metal tag on the head bracket says only Bekaert. The seat tube has numerous fluer de lis on a white field and the label on the down tube says LEULLIOT in large letters. On either side of that in smaller letters it says VELO ROUEN. Some of the fittings are French (Huret).
On the 1951 export documentation it is listed as circa 1939 and frame number 2055.
I assume it is French but have been unable to find anything about this bicycle maker on the internet. According to Wikipedia, Jean Leulliot was manager of the French team that won the Tour de France in 1937 and then had a rather colorful and contentious relationship with French Nationalists, organizing the alternative 1942 Circuit de France under Nazi sponsorship.
If you want to see a higher res version of the attachment go to: http://www.irrational1.deviantart.com/#/d48n0gp
Thanks in advance,
Chris