Beautiful Rene Herse on eBay
 

Have you seen this? One of the most beautiful bikes I have seen. Maybe we can pool our funds together and create a time share program to ride it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rene-Herse-57-5-...item53e5c9a739

I'm digging that stem. Reminds me of the Cinelli alter stem. One of my all time favorites.

I saw that this morning just after he posted it. I bid on (and lost) a few of his small items. It took me way too long to peel my eyes away from that auction and get to work. It may not have been built by the man himself, but it is still one cool bicycle.

Is there a detail that wasn't thought about before building that bike?

That is the inspiration for my "Constructeur" International. Wow

Hrmmm I don't want to poo-poo on this dudes parade (and maybe my eyes aren't working just right), but I believe the fork is bent.

my heart just skipped a bit. Every inch is gorgeous, but I especially love that bottom bracket cluster.

Now who doesn't love French bikes ?!

What's the braze on between the cable stop and guide on the chain stay? http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSC_5176.jpg

It should correspond with a similar one by the forward end of the chainstay. Between the two you stretch a strip of leather to protect the stay from chain slap.

Yes, the rear brake straddle cable is blocking the light.

Looks like the braze on holds a rubber chain slap guard, like those sold at VO - http://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...lap-guard.html

[I see now that Jan beat me to it]

Amateurs. I'm over it.

Me too. I'll take a Voyageur any day!!

Very nice indeed.....until the photo of the Simplex RD....memories of last summer's incident when my Peugeot UO9's Simplex took a dive into the wheel!!! Never want to experience that again. Hey, I just saved 6K!

It kinda does look like it in the first pic. Maybe the wheel is turned just a bit to give the illusion, but for 6K+, I'd want to see it in person before I bid.

Something to consider when buying one of these is the import duty. I bought one from this seller a few years ago. The import duty, and various related costs, added 1300 bucks to the already high cost of the bike plus shipping to the U.S.

My experience is not unique. More than a year after I bought mine, someone who had seen pics of my bike and was buying one (not that it matters, but same seller) emailed to ask if the high import tax he was being asked to pay was to be expected.

I know many a person who have had to deal with unexpected matters in dealing with this seller, either as described above extremely high add-on costs (duty and/or custom clearance fees), or shipping costs that go beyond reasonable. One should also expect to need to deal with a bike needing a full overhaul an dmore than likely teh replacement of a number of components. This means that you do need to count more than the price paid for the bike itself. In this case, too bad that the headlight lens is missing, as is the special flashlight for the front carrier.

So how much is this one worth then?

http://www.leboncoin.fr/sports_hobbi...13.htm?ca=12_s

wow... that's a lovely bike. i think i'd certainly replace the simplex derailleur in the back.. but otherwise... its my size...

Shorthanded - That looks like a Simplex Super LJ to me. No need to replace that, but if you do, send it to me!

Fork looks straight to my eyes.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/DSC_5155.jpg

Wow, that one is beautiful too! Is it yours?

No it isn't i just saw this thread and searched my local site for Rene Herse for sale.
This one has been on sale for a while i think and i expect it will be 5% of the price of the Ebay one!
Why is that one so expensive anyway??

Here is another one as well http://www.leboncoin.fr/sports_hobbi...18.htm?ca=12_s

It's not. That's about what they cost, at least on eBay. Here's another data point -- a frame that just sold on eBay: [click!]

Seller's ID is alex. Could be Alexander March. That's the guy who sold me mine. He's also the one selling the blue one in the OP's post.