I saw a Flandria bike on Craigslist and don't know much about them. I saw some racing bikes online, but this is more of a comuter type bike with city bars in excellent condition, at least from the pics. Look like lovely carved lugs.

Any info would be great as well as opinions on whether it's worth my time. It's a drive to see it. Thank you!!

Loos like a nice bike for the price. Lower end but would probably make a nice commuter. Hard to tell from the pictures what equipment it has. The seller mentions it has an "8-speed sprocket." This bike would have originally come with a 5-speed freewheel so someone had to do some frame bending to accommodate 8 speeds. No problem if they knew what they were doing but you may have to straighten out the rear triangle if it was poorly done. You'll want to replace that mattress saddle with something more comfortable.
Brent

I am by no means as expert on Flandria bikes, but I do own one that is similar to the bike you are interested in. I do not think they are generally regarded as high quality bikes and I believe they produced mostly commuter-type bikes for the general Belgian public. That is basically what mine is- a lugged steel frame of unknown type. They did sponsor a racing team or two, but I believe that was to promote their brand like any other sponsor (telekom, motorola, molteni, etc) and not because they typically produced racing quality frames. So, I would say it depends on what you're after with this bike. I am very happy with mine and I use it as a daily commuter (a short, flat, 1.2 mile commute each way). I like it because you don't see many of them, it's in very good condition for it's age, and it has a cool integrated rack and over-the-top chain guard design. In reality it isn't much different than the bajillion three speed Ralieighs out there, except it's made in Belgium!

In this case I would expect "8 speeds" to actually mean 8, as in 2 x 4.

Thanks for all of the responses guys. I assumed he meant 2 x 4 as well, but I will confirm as Brent brings up a good point. Not sure I want it if its been bent to fit something wider. With the pics, its hard to tell. Also Brent, I picked up some nice leather saddles at an auction, so I have some nice replacements. I want to get a couple bikes, but am not really sure yet what I want. This caught my eye, but did not know too much about it. I am looking at a Peugeot PX50 that needs a lot of love as well, hmmmmm....

My Dad owned and operated a full service bike shop in Eastern CT from 1952 until 1978. We sold Flandria bikes during the bike boom period of 1971-1972 and for a while afterwards. I believe we received them from a distributor in the Springfield or Worcester , MA area. They were made in Belgium and were OK bikes. Nothing spectacular at all, your basic cottered crank, Mafac brakes, and Simplex derailleur set up. The pictured bike looks like the ones we sold, except now converted to upright bars, etc. Parts replacement might be a bit interesting since the seat post, stem, hbars were , as far as I can remember, more toward the French out of normal mm sizes. I would strongly take a look at the Peugeot too.

I think these bikes were also built in Portugal. Flandria sponsored a famous racing team in the 60's and 70's-- I have always sort of wanted one of their high-end racers with the red team livery, but for some reason they seem to be quite rare.

Flandria was a Belgian brand owned by the Claery family. There involvement with bicycles started in the late 1890s as a result of their blacksmith business, however they did not dedicate entirely to bicycles until the mid-1920s establishment od Claery Bros. Ltd. The Flandria brand was introduced circa 1940. In the mid-1950s there was famous feud between two of the brothers, resulting in the factory being split in two, with one brother retaining the Flandria brand and another setting up under the Superia brand.

From 1959-1979, Flandria sponsored a highly successful pro racing team. The company fell on hard times with the shift towards Japanese products in the 1970s. This led to the merger of Flandria and Superia in the very early 1980s and the eventual demise in the mid-1980s. However, the brand still had high recognition and was resurrected in the early 21st century.

While not a large manufacturer, Flandria did produce a full range of models, from entry level, up to pro grade. In this vein, they were much like Peugeot and Raleigh, though on a smaller scale.

Thanks for that info, very cool! Not sure I am going to get it, but thinking about it.