https://cgi.ebay.com/vintage-road-bik...3A2%7C294%3A50

"Nobody puts Baby in the corner".

Oui, c'est intéressant






Would my French teacher be proud of me?

Not my size anyway, and the bike does appear to be in fine condition and likely a good deal for $99... But... I would be wary of purchasing any bike without seeing clear deailed photos. Those vague auction photos are like seeing photos of a car sitting in a driveway, and I like to step a bit closer, kick the tires and look under the hood a bit before offering money for anything. I also question the 1972 date. Wonder where that came from? I would think that an original condition French bike from 1972 would absolutely NEVER have what appears on this bike to be brazed-on top tube rear brake cable guides & bottle cage bosses, possibly even downtube shifter bosses - my guess would be perhaps a decade later. The components cannot be seen clearly, so they could be anything from the very top to very lowest quality. Personally, if I were interested, I would request MANY more photos and with clear details, and would ask many more questions before offering even $20 for the bike. Good Luck.

I got some pics from the seller......He says it's made of Durifort tubing which I think is straight gage. Sorry the pics are small...

not necessarily straight-gage: this was the predecessor/parallel to Vitus tubing and came in different grades depending on the year. There's much to read regarding it in this CR archive:
https://search.bikelist.org/?SearchSt...ssicrendezvous
Looks like a nicely built frame with forged DOs, might be worth a gamble...if you're a gamblin' man

Those stronglight cranks were not available in the 70s. Could mean they were replaced, but it could mean otherwise.
Also that Rear DR wasnt available until the early 80s.
Notice a Trend?

I was supposed to "stay strong" this year, but I'm really falling in love with the color scheme.

Is a French lady really worth it?

... 'bout them cranks...

I'm pretty sure those are Stronglight model 104 cranks, and I believe that logo design [the lettering above the fluting] was used from the late 1970s until around 1983. They used the same 122 mm. Bolt Circle Diameter as the earlier Stronglight mod. 93 cranks, but these had a more modern looking 5-arm spider, so more like a Campy crankset... only better [IMHO]- since those allowed inner chainrings down to 38 teeth. Nice quality, really.

Here is a catalogue page (from around 1984) - only difference is simply the newer Stronglight "crest" shown in this illustration [it was actually just adapted from the heraldic coat of arms crest of the city of St. Etienne, France - home of Stronglight]: https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2383/...d0b4eccc_b.jpg

Well, looks like the seller decided to change the bidding from $90 to a BIN of $340.

I thought there might be a possibility of getting it cheaper than that. Oh well.