Hi Folks:
Mark Bulgier noticed my story about my '64 Jean Brun
well used road bike and suggested that I might clarify
the background of this mysterious name.Why Not?
Jean Brun himself had a professional racing career in
Switzerland from the early to middle fifties,with a
respectable palmares.By the late fifties,he set up in
Geneva to be the Swiss equivalent of Ted Ernst pere et
fils.(His son,a carbon copy,has taken over the business
after Jean's premature death in 1995).The Bruns have
been enthusiastic sponsors of young racers all these
years.When I was a lad in Geneva,with my spiffy new Jean
Brun road bike,I found Swiss guys in my neighborhood
with the same bikes who were doing club racing.Within a
couple of weeks,I had abandoned the International School
set and was hanging with the locals,going to their
swimming holes and zooming around the fields and
foothills.
Now the Brun business is still a hub of the club racing
phenomenon,and there's an annual Jean Brun Memorial Road
race course every year.The shop also supplies utility
and sport bikes to people looking for that little bit
extra:the shop motto is"le specialist du beau velo".
The shop is still at 3 Place du Cirque,which is on the
North corner of a park called Plain du Plainpalais where
there's a flea market twice a week.Where to look for
soulful old bikes.
The Brun bikes are made by Cilo,but young Brun makes
it perfectly clear that they are made for Brun by Cilo
to Brun specs,not Cilos sold by Brun.
'Nough Said,Seth Finkelstein,Santa Cruz