Well... Yes and no.

We imported Bertins into the US for about 8 years from 1975 on. We never knew what colors or kinds of decals they were going to have until we opened the boxes.

Within container load, most of the bikes of the same model had the same kinds of decals. I remember in the late 70s occasionally getting some bikes with newly built frames that had decals from the early 70s! They could say Andre Bertin, A Bertin or just Bertin.

A centime saved is a centime earned!

Late 60s C37
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...85510/sizes/l/

1970s decals from eBay
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1979 C132
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1980 C37bis (world champion foil bands removed)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1984? C37
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1982 C79 SSC
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1986 C80 SSC
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

We could specify the frame geometry, tubing, dropouts and most of the components but not the colors or decals.

We were marketing Bertins as "All French Bikes". Bertin was the importer/distributor for Shimano in France at that time. They could never understand why we wanted all French components.

From the early 70s until the mid 80s there were probably 5 or 6 small companies like ourselves who were importing Bertins. Bertin was a small manufacturer and a big component distributor. There were fairly flexible about what went on their bikes so you will find a lot of variances in features.

The one thing that most Bertins have in common is that they tend to be very smooth riding bikes. Bertin was located in Northwest France across the border from Belgium. That area was called the Hell of the North for good reason, there were still a lot of roads paved with cobblestones!

Chas. verktyg