My memories of these bikes come from c.1978 or so - my father bought me a Puch Royal X - 531 throughout, Bocama lugs, Shimano dropouts, chromed dropouts but not socks, chrome crown. Mine came from George Crook at Bikeways of Atlanta, and was white, with the weird blend o' parts they put on them - Weinmann Carrera sidepulls, SR stem and bars and seatpost, Dura-Ace cranks, SunTour Cyclone derailleurs (the one in the picture has a long-cage unit with a wider freewheel, but they came stock with the short cage unit), 14-22 Regina Oro 5-speed freewheel and chain, some sort of generic pedals and I misremember the stock saddle - I had an Ideale 90. Anyway, the same frame was used for the Puch Royal Force, which was silver-grey, black head tube with black Dura Ace parts.

The A-D Vent Noir that I remember came with tubulars, and was marketed as a race bike back then and was geared accordingly. My memory is that at least one edition of Richard's Bicycle Book listed it as an example of top-line production bikes, and that he thought the flat black and gold pinstripes was "sexy." I have a dim memory of someone in Atlanta selling them, but I am not positive.

I missed out on the Vent Noir II with its black chrome and its Campy GS parts kit ...