I picked these bars up at the local co-op for my '74 Grand Prix, but have liked them so much that I have swapped them out to my new Centurion and passed the Grand Prix off with the Centurion's bars. They're the right width with a decent amount of drop and plenty of bar coming back off the curve to grab onto when climbing. Sadly, I don't recognize the brand name, but hopefully one of y'all can help me out.

Here are pics of the engravings:







What I can read:

Drive side - La Bonneville / Iton 27190
CTA
La Technique Avion
Appliquee
Aux 2 Roues
France

Non-drive side - Crown above lions

WOW! space ships and Lions rampant!
well, that's not technically correct, that would be standing up, these lions are horizontal,
but still Heraldic!
I have no idea...at all...except they say they are La Technique Avion (means zip to me)

La Technique Avion -- The Airplane Technique (Airplane Technology)
Appliquee -- Applied
Aux 2 Roues -- To 2 Wheels

Very nice engravings! That plane looks like a Concorde to me!

hmmm, wonder if this has ANYthing to do with Viscount and the "aerospace" marketing they did?
If there are 3 lions, it's the coat of arms of England (which still doesn't mean anything to me, yet).
Thanks for the translation, hernick!

I believe those bars were on a Peugeot I just sold. Unfortunately, I didn't take any closeup pics.

Neal

^ that's all I can find on them: appears to be a brand spec'd on some Peugeots, but no further info...miamijim may know something about 'em.

These were stock on 80's Peugeots. They are good quality French bars made by CTA. The French phrase says "Aviation technology applied to two wheels". They were made in the town of La Bonneville sur Iton.

Cheers,
Karl

Thanks for the ID. I'm not surprised they're nothing too special. Probably got left at the co-op by some college kid looking to put tiny little riser bars on his fixie conversion. But I like them, so on my bike they stay.

Well when it comes to bars there are only a few things that distinguish them from each other: how sturdy they are, how light they are, whether the curve feels good, whether they are attractive or not. In my book the difference between a great bard and a good one is in the shades of grey in each of those categories. In my book the CTA bars rate pretty high on all counts. So I'd be happy with them, and ride them with pride.

Karl

good info,thanks, but is it CTA or LTA (for La Technique Avion)?
If it's "C" what's the C stand for?

Well that makes more sense. I've always thought it was CTA, but I think you're probably right.

Karl

There's a pair on ebay now...see item number 170500073047......regards

Definitely CTA...

My 89 Versailles has CTA bars & stem, no mistaking the logo on the stem; for that matter the catalogue says CTA: https://cyclespeugeot.com/images/1989_Peugeot_9.jpg

...unless there is a ripoff LTA brand in France!

Hello all,
I come late on this subject, my grand-father did some of these "bars" for "CTA" in la Bonneville sur Iton in France (Normandy - you can see the heraldic of Normandy with William the Conqueror leopard).
CTA means "Cintrage de tube dans ses applications". That was a small brand and handcrafted some armbars mostly for Peugeot.
Excuse my english, note my mother tongue.

Those bars are my '85 Peugeot PH10LE and i think theyre the original stock bars to that model.

Thanks. Small world. That helps us out a bunch. It looks like your Grandfather and his coworkers did good work.

Do you know if they did anything else, or just handle bars?

CTA stem.

be advised: as stated b4 those bars are FRENCH! the clamping dia. is smaller than
the stems that would have come on your Grand Prix or Centurion. cast al-alloy parts
like stems have NO elasticity. exact size match for bar to stem is necessary.

Jacktheslepp, Thank you for resurrecting this thread! I hope you will return to it, read my post and reply:

I picked up these bars somewhere and put them on my 1988 Vitus 979. I love them, their low drops make a very short trip for my right hand to hit the down tube shifters, they are from the same period, and I think they are most appropriate, not just being French- frame was manufactured in Saint-Etienne 365 miles from la Bonneville sur Iton) and aluminum, but because the stamping, “La technique Avion appliquee aux 2 roues...aviation technology applied to two wheels” as the Vitus’ aluminum frame tubes are bonded to the intersecting parts using technologies from France’s aerospace industry as well!

I’d like to know more about the factory in la Bonneville sur Iton. I looked on Google maps and it looks like a rather small village. It is supported by a railway, however, and it looks like there is a small industrial area near the tracks. Do you know where the factory was that your grandfather worked making these awesome handlebars? When and for how long did he work there? How many employees, what else did they manufacture by “CTA/tube bending in its applications”....airplane parts?

This thread is awesome! I really wondered what all that meant on my 1985 PGN 10 bars and now I know! Remarkable history! So cool.

This thread is many, many years old!

I am pretty sure my first post to this forum was a reply to a long dead thread. It seems to be a rite of passage. Welcome to Bike Forums!