A few months ago I bought a Jeunet road bike that I found on Craigslist. I was attracted to it because I never had a French bike, because it was my size, and because it had a full reynolds 531 frameset (the 630 was third from the top, roughly equivalent to a raleigh competition). I wasn't sure I would keep it original. The original paint was "French blue" with black lugs, pretty and characteristically French, but there were areas where the finish was really rough, and the lugwork itself was hideously sloppy. I decided to partially correct it by doing some lug profiling myself with a rotary tool, followed by powder coating. I already have another "French blue" bike, so I wanted to go with a different color, but still retain the French flavor. I really wanted to do a full porteur/650B conversion since the frame has fairly relaxed angles and a decent amount of fork rake, but being a road bike, there wasn't adequate clearance for tires wider than 30mm, with fenders. So, I ended up sticking with 700C wheels and did a "partial" porteur conversion: I added a porteur rack and bars, both from Velo-Orange, and I converted it from a ten-speed to a five-speed, with the possibility of adding a chainguard or even a full porteur chaincase (I have the VO porteur chaincase powdercoated in the same color as the bike, but I can't bear hiding that TA chainring!). Total weight as shown is 26.5 lb.

The bike still needs some tweaking, like getting the fenderlines more consistent and a few other minor tweaks. This is going to be my daily commuter.

here are some pics, and the full flickr set can be seen here.

















as found:

Looks very nice, what color is that?

Amazing.

and this is why i am all for re-painting. it looks beautiful!

What kind of handlebars and brake levers are those? Where did you purchase them?

That is really a beautiful result.

wow that looks awesome.

you did a really good job. Im sure you will be getting looks while on your commute.

Some ninny is bound to tell you that you're going to die because you drilled and tapped your stem.

Very nice job and oh so French.

Very nice build! What is the headbadge?

Very nice transformation, it looks fantastic from every angle!

I've got to say that I like the original more, the picture of the original makes it look quite nice.

I'll trust you, though, and assume that the paint was terrible and so were the lugs.

I have a 5-speed single-in-front setup, and I find the chain drops of the front ring all the time. Do you have the problemo?

thanks all for the comments!

brake levers are tektro inverse brake levers, handlebars are velo-orange "porteur" bars. i purchased the bars and levers from velo-orange.

well at least it's not an ava stem! and if the great constructeurs did this, it's good enough for me! besides, how many stems crack in the middle of the neck? i would imagine most fail at stress points like the bend, or the clamp?

it's hand-cut and filed from a piece of aluminum tubing. it was a kind gift from 3rrr products. he's a sculptor by training and trade.

i haven't had any chain drop yet, although it's been ridden less than 30 miles (i finished it the day before yesterday). however, i do have a chainline problem, in that the largest cog is way too afar off chainline that the chain clatters badly on the jockey wheels. ideally i need a bottom bracket that's 5mm narrower on the drive side, but good luck finding one! (french threading, and all).

i can understand how some people prefer original paint schemes. if the bike came from some special provenance, i probably would have kept it more original.

here's a before and after of the seat cluster:

Are the Porteur bars aluminum or steel?

Sweet!

Drilling and tapping that stem will surely lead to your death.

quelle couleur avez-vous peint votre bicyclette ?

aluminum

vert de pistaciao, ou vert en bon état, également connu sous le nom de RAL6021

Oops...
posted at wrong thread

Your conversion is simply gorgeous! Before I saw this bicycle, I had been contemplating putting those VO porteur bars and inverse levers on my mixte, and wrapping the majority of the bars as you did, so I could grip them at various places. Are you finding this set up comfortable? Also, I am curious where you plan to put your lights as this your daily commuter. will you do a rack and fender mount?

thanks! i love the bars and inverse brake setup because i can place my hands anywhere along the back sweep and still grasp the levers. i have these bars inverted, actually, so that i get about 2cm rise, as opposed to 2cm drop, which is their historical configuration. i can't really use the bars close to the stem, at least it feels awkward. (i only wrapped the entire bar because i didn't like seeing the inverted VO logo, which is laser-etched on either side of the clamp section). the bars are a bit narrow compared with nitto albatross bars, and it took me a little while to get used to that.

yep, i plan to do rack and fender mounting of the lights. i plan to mount one or two headlights underneath the rack. i should still be able to use front panniers with the lights. i will likely do an LED retrofit of some NOS cibie headlights i scored off of the 'bay:



for a taillight, i picked up a NOS soubitez fender-mounted light unit, missing the incandescent internals. i finished the LED conversion, and it'll be ready to mount once i fabricate an internal mounting bracket for it:




i documented the LED retrofit on my blog, for anyone interested.

Wow, that's really something...impressive.

Ok, enough of the pleasantries...what are you doing with the old bottle cage? Hint, hint say no more! (PM me )

Great work all around - Love what you've done with both the Jeunet and the Shogun.

khatfull, PM sent.

Very nice, Make me think I should rethink getting ride of my 75, same size and all. But my 1975 has a few annoying features and one is the infamous 1970s short reach front brake and long reach rear. It does not appear yours suffers from the same affliction! The only nice thing on mine is the chrome, very good quality, the rest of it is horrendous. I also had to straighten both the frame and the fork on mine thought I road it no hands just fine before I ever had the fork straightened. someone also did a horrendous job of tapping the BB to italian so it carries a lot of baggage but has served me well as my daily ride fixed gear for over 3 years.

mmm...lugged chromed steel, 650B wheels, and a beautiful restoration job. everything I see there just says "classy". veryyyyy nice.

i'd give mine the same assessment. mine has the same calipers front and rear, but the seatstay bridge is placed much higher relative to the wheel than the front fork crown. so, the pads are adjusted high in front, low in rear. and yes, the chrome seems to be very high quality, but everything else was sloppy.

thanks, but no 650B, sadly. they won't fit :-(. it's 700C.