Classic Factory Lightweights
 

I haven't yet done 10 posts so I can't post photos or links yet, but I thought I would draw your attention to my Classic Factory Lightweights website - classiclightweights.net - which is focused on the racing bikes that were produced by "factories" rather than bespoke builders. If you google classic factory lightweights it usually comes up.
My interest really is racing bikes built by the manufacturers who sponsored race teams. Most of the bikes on the site are or were my own but there are a few others. One bike I really like that is not on there yet is a top tier 1962 Helyett Speciale. I bought the frame NOS a couple of years ago with white paint and no decals and sold as an unidentified frame. But there is no mistaking the specific Helyett Nervex lugs and the serial number including model year on the left rear dropout. I had the frame refinished in Helyett green with decals from bicycledecals.net. The Helyett is built up with Simplex Juy Record 61 parallelogram derailleur - the metal one produced for a couple of years before the plastic Simplex Prestige was introduced. Actually Anquetil used a Simplex Prestige gear on mountain stages in the 1962 Tour de France which was his third win on a Helyett. The Helyett company went out of business that year. The next two of Anquetil's Tour wins were in 1963 and 1964 on a Gitane and I am pleased to be restoring a 1964 version of one of those, which I shall post when it's done.

Unfortunately, it would appear that classiclightweights.net is chock full of ads which clog my browser despite my great ad-blocking, anti-tracking, etc., software. No fun at all. :crash:

hwyatt post one more time and you can add your pictures. See if you can up your posts to more than .796 per year. :D

I'm not seeing any ads, so maybe my ad-blocker is mo better?
Anyway, nice site, cool topic, and welcome to the forums!

unwanted ads
 

Use Epic Browser...built in proxy, great ad-blocker, basic version is free and works well.

Lots of ads but interesting site.

I'm confused by the criteria though. Schwinn, Trek, and Cannondale all had factory racing teams and they are not listed. Also there is no listing for Japanese bikes.

Or is the website mainly about the OP's bikes?

Sorry about the ads. I will see what I can do. I originally introduced Google ads to try to cover the cost of the domain and hosting, and the ads were unobtrusive and down the side of the page where you could ignore them. Now Google have started doing pop-ups without telling me they were going to do it. I certainly didn't ask for them and I will see if we can go back the way we were.
When I go onto the site myself, I usually get a pop up - but usually only once and I just close it and it doesn't come back.

The criteria are straightforward enough. I just happen not to have had any Schwinn, Trek or Cannondale bikes myself, and nobody has given me details of any of these bikes that they would like to see on the site. I haven't had a Colnago either which is another notable omission and Bianchi are under-represented.

The only reason that most of the entries are 1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s is that that is where my interests lie. It doesn't mean that I don't want to show later bikes. I have sold many of my later bikes and soon I will have nothing more recent than my 1973 Team Bic Motobecane which I am currently restoring. Unfortunately the bike had been refinished and had an incorrect fork. I bought it from someone who got it from a team mechanic, but it has no provenance, just a frame number 8 instead of a full production frame number. I believe frame number 6 is in the USA somewhere.

If any of you want to see a wider variety of bikes, then send me photos and details and encourage others to do so. As an alternative, does anybody want to take the website over and add to it and maintain it themselves?