vintage meaning the age of the bike or the rider?! '94 Basso, had it since new, my only bike (use one of my kids' mountain bikes when weather gets really nasty)

Just boxed this up and sent it to my sister on a long-term loan; it's unfortunately just too small and too whippy for a guy my size.

1976 VeloSoleX "L'Etoile." Full french-gauge 531 throughout. Stronglight TS cranks, Huret Challenger derailleurs, Sachs 13-26 6-speed FW and a Sedis chain for an all-French drivetrain. I did a 650B conversion from the original 27" tires to make room for the fenders. (click to embiggen)

Fenders are a pair of Bluemels "Airweights," which I just love... unfortunately, they hook to the chainstay bridge instead of bolt-mounting, making it hard to get a clean fender-line in the rear. I think I did okay up front, though.

The hub is a Shimano DH-3N80 driving a Basta halogen light, which I mounted to the Velo-Orange "Constructeur" front rack using an arm off a Mafac "Racer" brake. This puts the light right where it does the most good, its low enough that I get a good idea of the road surface and avoids tire shadow. I've had the Suntour barcons for some years now, they just plain work with no frills and no trouble. Rims are Velocity Synergy and tires are cheap Kendas; if she wants to shell out for Grand Bois tires, she can use her own damn money!

Going to 650B from a very tightly-clearanced 27" frame necessitated that I bite the bullet and get the MAFAC "Raids" from a guy in France on eBay. I think i won them for just over $100, which is simultaneously outrageous and a pretty good deal. Regardless, they have more than enough reach, and stop the bike very well under my two hundred mumble pounds, so my sister at a hundred-pounds-plus lighter should have no trouble at all.


And they certainly look nice, which was an important consideration.

I remember I used the green handlebar tape because it was all the shop I was working in at the time had in stock (Middle of February last year) and I needed to get something on it. It's the Deda stuff, and I found that I liked it, regardless of the questionable aesthetics.

The sharp-eyed will notice the threadless stem. Well, that's my own damn fault: When I got the bike, it had a very nice Belleri stem that was absolutely seized into the steerer. I heated, filed, sawed and twisted and ended up cracking the braze at the fork crown. I turned it over to Paul Wyganowski, who brazed in a new 1" threadless steerer and gave me an extra set of eyelets on the dropouts so I could use the rack. This turned out to be a mistake as stem and headset choices are quite limited in that size. I ended up using a Miche Primato headset, which has been a little problematical for me, as it seems to want to loosen fairly frequently. The stem is, at this point, the same butt-ugly Profile Design unit but I *did* find a twin-I-beam SR stem in 1" size, which was an early 80s mountain bike thing. I'm in the middle of re-shaping it to resemble a Rene Herse stem, and will send it out to my sister when it's done.

It's been about a 3-year evolution at this point. I hope she likes it.

Captain, that is a nice and very distinctive build!

I recommend re-posting this in the Classic & Vintage sub-forum vs. the commuting forum - you'd probably have more luck with a response, even though many C&V'ers also use the commuting forum. Just a suggestion. Seems to me this thread is more "show and tell" than "what bike is this?".

Cool bike, though.