I am familiar with the straight Bertin brand from France, but I've recently seen a bike labeled "Andre Bertin". Does anyone know if these were two different operations or is it just a variation on their branding at different points in time?

Peter

https://www.classicrendezvous.com/France/Bertin_main.htm

Peter-

Bertin and Andre Bertin were the same French company. The example you show of the cyclocross bike is from the mid-80s. Bikes with Bertin only, usually on the seattube are from the late 60s and 1970s.

Jim

Well... Yes and no.

We imported Bertins into the US for about 8 years from 1975 on. We never knew what colors or kinds of decals they were going to have until we opened the boxes.

Within container load, most of the bikes of the same model had the same kinds of decals. I remember in the late 70s occasionally getting some bikes with newly built frames that had decals from the early 70s! They could say Andre Bertin, A Bertin or just Bertin.

A centime saved is a centime earned!

Late 60s C37
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...85510/sizes/l/

1970s decals from eBay
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1979 C132
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1980 C37bis (world champion foil bands removed)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1984? C37
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1982 C79 SSC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

1986 C80 SSC
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2826722...n/photostream/

We could specify the frame geometry, tubing, dropouts and most of the components but not the colors or decals.

We were marketing Bertins as "All French Bikes". Bertin was the importer/distributor for Shimano in France at that time. They could never understand why we wanted all French components.

From the early 70s until the mid 80s there were probably 5 or 6 small companies like ourselves who were importing Bertins. Bertin was a small manufacturer and a big component distributor. There were fairly flexible about what went on their bikes so you will find a lot of variances in features.

The one thing that most Bertins have in common is that they tend to be very smooth riding bikes. Bertin was located in Northwest France across the border from Belgium. That area was called the Hell of the North for good reason, there were still a lot of roads paved with cobblestones!

Chas. verktyg