The sign at the end of the driveway strikes again. I got a call a couple of days ago from a guy who claimed he had a German 10-speed he wanted to get rid of. Figured it'll be another gaspipe special, Simplex, Weinmann or Altenberger, etc. Cleaned up, I can certainly get $100-125 for it. I told him to bring it over when it was convenient.
He dropped by with it today. It was what I expected . . . . . . . . but not quite.
The expected: Seamless steel tubing (roughly Roger Riviere quality, including matching paint job, same color even), the usual German 3-piece steel hubs (nuts, not wingnuts) with steel rims, unbranded cottered crank. Then I started noticing the surprises:
Huret Svelto derailleur on the rear, not the usual Allvit or Simplex Prestige. While the seat and dowtube decals say 'Kolbe' the headbadge is completely different:
Then there's the generator set - I originally guessed its something aftermarket and oddly mounted on the fork:
But then I notice that the wiring for the generator goes into the frame just behind the headtube and comes out on the left chainstay to go up the seatstay to the (badly broken) tail light:
I apologize that the second shot doesn't clearly show the wire coming out of the stay.
Then there's the 3-speed roadster stem:
Finally, if you look back up again at the picture of the Svelto, you'll notice that the mounting points for the rear rack (I'm convinced it's original) were drilled for fender stays. There's a couple of them on the forks, too. So this bike was originally set up as a lighted and fendered tourer, not until a Gitane Hosteler - only it's 10 speed, not 15. But who puts a 5-speed corncob on a fendered touring bike? The final picture is of the remaining decal, on the top tube just behind the head tube:
Of course, what was a completely uninteresting fix and flip as quickly as possible has suddenly gotten interesting. And, it's my size (grumble). I've got a funny feeling that we're looking at another addition to Syke's shelter for abandoned 70's gaspipe.
Anyone out there run across another one of these? I'd be very curious to find anything out about this.