Well after 30 years of kidding my wife about keeping her eyes open at garage sales for French bikes, my karma took control of my wallet. I recently bought an Andre Bertin cyclotouriste bike of unknown age full well knowing all of the liabilities of dealing with French specs in early French bikes. I’m placing this bike in the late 70’s on the basis of a mixture of components aware that Bertin was known to use mixes of components depending on the times, the customer, and availability. It may be older.



The frame is Vitus 172 with seemingly strange ridged end caps on the seat stays. it has an alloy Specialites TA crankset; alloy Atax (a Milremo associate) stem; steel bars by Milremo ( with a cool cyclist graphic); brakes are Mafac Racer CP.

Also Milremo (= Normandy?) hubs with rear marked 25 78 and front marked 36 79 . Rims are alloy Super Champion 700c.



Curiously the dropouts are Milremo but also marked with what appears to be a date The NDS side is 5 77V; and the DS is 19 78 ? These seem to be substantial dropouts but are they forged or ??



All of this is leading me to conclude a date of around 1978 but there are not integral cable guides on the top tube; but the web shows bikes reported to be older that have welded cable guides. The guides on the bottom bracket are also clamp ons and so too are the studs for the shifters on the down tube.



So I’ve got a cyclotouriste frame, Made in France, from Vitus 172 and Mafac Racer brakes, pushing an ID away from the C34 model and toward the C132 model. BTW the Bertinclassiccycles word press site has be a great source of info.



Interestingly, there are no chrome socks on the fork nor are there the usual multicolored stripes and it appears stickers have been removed from the fork or if a replacement its a good paint match. There is no large Bertin labeling on either the seat tube or down tube. The brake levers are Shimano 600 and the Front Deraileur, a Shimano ARX. The RD is a short cage Simplex but thats as far as my Simplex ID can go. Pedals are Lyotard manufactured in 82.



The bike strikes me as a fairly light bike and promises to be a fun ride once I go through it a bit more thoroughly. Its hardly pristine but like most desert SW bikes, its amazingly rust free. I continue to research the date and model info for this bike.

Late 70s Bertin?

Dated?

Dated dropout

Atom

Vitus 172

Cycotourste

Mafac racer

ridged end caps on seat stay