New to the forums; pleasure to be here. Thank you for your time.

I was helping my father-in-law with some yard work at this new place and found a bicycle buried under some weeds and brush against the house. I recognized the Simplex gear from an old bicycle my grandfather had given me years ago--beyond that, all I can really say is what is printed on the bike: Jeunet, and then something along the lines of French Comet(?)

I've been looking for a bicycle for a while now just to go exploring (moved to a new town this week) but I have been reluctant to invest in something new. The two gears on the Simplex are brittle and have broken nearly all of the teeth, many of the parts and bolts are rusted, and I have no idea what condition the tires are really in at this point.

I've never fixed a bicycle, but I have a mechanical mind. Is it worth the time?

Eeh, buried under weeds and outside for years...A quick google search tells me about "Jeunet Franche-Comte" bikes...decent entry-level bikes from the 1970s. I don't think it's worth fixing up if it's weathered the outdoors for this long, for the money you'd put into restoring it (sounds like most parts need replacing) you could buy a nice used bike.

Jeunet made some nice bikes, and even the entry level ones I've seen have at least some bling. If it's decent, fix it up and ride it. The low level ones had forged Simplex drops without a hanger, so it's easy enough to switch over a more durable Suntour derailleur.

Problems may arise in the french nature of the bike. If you need to replace either the bottom bracket or headset, these can require som patience. In practice, the headsets on these old Frenchies are practically indestructible (unless they're period Campagnolo), and bottom brackets will shortly be available via velo orange.

Post pictures, we can assess it better.

are the VO BB a definite thing now?

According to posts on the VO imports blog, itsa coming very soon.

https://voimports.blogspot.com/ Second post, read down

Despite what the first respondent said above, I think that Jeunet was a quality bike; they just didn't have a racing team. I have one, and it's a handsome bike, with classic details. Your Jeunet is most likely constructed of Reynolds 531 double-butted tubing -- that's a good thing. They had tubing decals on the seat tube, just below the top tube, and on the forks. It probably has Simplex dropouts, and as Poguemahone says, no integral derailer hanger. I will bet it has a TA Cyclotouriste crankset, which is one that's sought by vintage bike fans. If you don't want to restore it, you can sell the frame to a teenager or college student to make a fixed gear bike out of, and the crankset will fetch something reasonable on eBay. The rear derailer is no big deal -- if the rest of it is OK, you could just replace the jockey wheels; or better yet, get a Suntour derailer: Vluxe, Cyclone, or whatever, with a hanger. One of those should not be too hard to find.

Far more common than a 531 frame is the entry level Jeunet, which is gussied up a bit. It has the half chrome rear stays you often see on higher end Frenchies and the aforementioned Simplex drops. However, the frame is anything but 531; there's a nice seam down the inside of the head tube, and the post, IIRC, is 25.4. In addtion, every single one of this model I've ever seen has fully chromed forks, whcih look like replacements but aren't (catalog pics from the time show the forks as half chromed, but I've had four or five of them in my hands and they've all been full chromed, as well as all the ones I've seen on the bay. This lower end model has cottered cranks, as well.

Way back, when vintage bikes were cheaper, I stupidly thought twice about a 531 Jeunet on ebuy that was only 150 plus shipping. Stupidly, I didn't BIN it. One of my few bike buy regrets ever.

As follows:





There is one fellow here on the forum with a striking example of one of these - for no explicable reason, his is equipped with fenders and a nice set of brazeons for touring too. Most striking lower-end machine I've ever seen.

-Kurt

I'd agree. they're nice looking bikes; never had one in my size to keep, alas.

They still ride and look like gaspipe, regardless - I would not wish to keep one. The only one I've seen that I would not mind owning is the fendered version owned here by one of the forum members.

EDIT: It is tashi's bike:



^
Note the extra braze-ons.

-Kurt

My Jeunet has rack, generator, and fender braze-ons; a chromed rat-trap rear rack, internal wiring, and lights that mount to the fenders. It's loaded, but none of it is very high quality.


It's the nicest crappy bike I've ever seen, and it charms the heck out of me. It just seems to have that special "I don't know what"