JohnDThompson 

Classic French frame & fork. French thread, of course. Includes headset. Simplex dropouts without hanger. Not “drewed,” though; chrome is intact. Unless it was “drewed” before plating, which doesn't seem likely. More pictures on request. US$30 plus shipping.

big chainring 

These are nice frames. Built for 700c wheels though 27" was spec'd for US market. So long reach brakes arent necessary when this is built with 700c wheels. I have had several of these bikes and built them up with sew-ups. Really great riding bikes. Chrome is top quality. Paint is terrific in a bike boom sorta way. And this is the wonderful soft French blue. Great buy.

rickrob 

Nice looking frame-- my size too. Is it 531 tubing?

JohnDThompson 

There's no indication of what tubing was used, and no clear evidence of any tubing decal ever being present. I won't pretend that it's anything other than a high-carbon steel tubing.

zze86

Still a pretty bike all the same. Really digging the color. And it matches well with the chrome socks and fork too.

Charles Wahl

John,
If you can't sell this bike to anyone in a day or so, I will take it and pay the $30 (plus shipping). But I feel obliged to inform you: it would be in for a serious "drewing" -- I have a frame that needs one of those Simplex 880 rear dropouts, and I've been searching for a couple years already, to no avail. I could use the headset, too.

JohnDThompson 

I have a buyer pending who doesn't plan to "drew" it. If it falls though, Charles is next in line.

Charles Wahl

I'm still here, and willing.

Chombi1 

Beautiful framest,...
So French and so classic!

verktyg 

The Simplex 881 dropouts were used on a lot on mid range French bikes in the early 70's. They were forged steel. The ends that went into the tubes were ~4mm thick. The slotted area where the wheel fits was milled to 3mm thick.

I always suspected that these were old stock dropouts from the 50's and 60's that were used during the bike boom because there were always shortages of everything and Simplex dropouts with derailleur hangers were unavailable. But this picture was from the 1975 Simplex catalog???



I asked a few folks from the UK why some really nice frames (Holdsworth, Mercian etc.) came with cheap stamped steel dropouts. The answer was that those dropouts allowed UK cyclists to use fixed or single speed gears, 3-4-5 speed internal geared hubs or derailleurs with a claw hanger.

Internal geared hubs were never that popular in France but maybe in other parts of Europe?

A lot of early 70's mid range French bikes had frames made of light weight straight gage tubes that were probably something like low alloy manganese carbon steels. Many entry level French bike boom bikes weight ~ 27-28 lbs. Those made with the lighter tubing weighed 1/2 to 1 lb less.

verktyg

JohnDThompson 

Franche-Comte is now sold. Thanks for looking!

Charles Wahl

Rats! But I'm glad someone is going to give a nice old frame a new life.