In a message dated 11/15/02 10:03:44 PM Pacific Standard Time, mark@bulgier.net writes:
<< Obligatory on-topic stuff: The bike I rode was a 1967 Jaubert, an
entry-level French 10 speed that we bought new for $49 - the only one I've
ever seen - anyone else ever heard of them? >>
Hi Mark,
One of those was the first (or replacement of) 10 speed that my dad bought
for my brother. Being brothers, I rode it as much if not more than him. This
would have been somewhere between 1964 and 1966. Pop got the bike at the
"AutoTorium" store on Mission Street in San Francisco. My brother (Jeff) ran
it into a light pole that was pretty far into the middle of the sidewalk. He
was not looking where he was going due to being distracted by a pretty girl,
at an age where he had an overabundance of hormones with not a lot of
experience dealing with them. Anyhow, pop firmly grasped the front wheel,
placed his foot on the BB and pulled the frame and fork straight. That
"repair" lasted a year or so. I was riding the bike up Steiner Street from
the Marina when the frame let go. The downtube separated just below the
headlug where the wrinkle had been. Fortunately, I was going uphill, not down
or my cycling might have ended in Junior High School. Pop then took the
broken frame back to AutoTorium, suggesting it shouldn't have broken and they
gave him another frame. I don't recall if the Jaubert was the first or the
second frame. This bike followed me to high school. I added an alpine ring on
the steel crank, threaded the plain end of the cotter pins to make a crude
extractor, and rode it until it started feeling "squirrelly" like the first
one did before it broke. This led to my purchasing my first Bianchi from
Oscar Juner. An old Specialissima frame he'd repainted, there clearly being
pits where all the chrome had once been. Finding most of the parts from the
French bike wouldn't fit, I slowly built the Bianchi up with Campy parts as I
could afford them. That's the bike I raced at Nevada City in 1972.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA