[CR]..Re J Dubois bike

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

From: "Norris Lockley" <Norris.Lockley@btopenworld.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 18:42:00 -0000
Subject: [CR]..Re J Dubois bike

Jusy trying to be helpful concerning the recntly spotted "J. Dubois" bike, described generally as being well-built. I've spent a lot of time in France and at the \paris Shows but have never come across this brand at all. There is a company clled DUNOIS, based to the sSW of Paris who did quite a range of bikes - I think some were bought in and others built on the premises,

The town mentiond on the headbadge-/transfer "Champigny" - there are two in France, the larger one being in the larger conurbation to the east of Paris in an area where there were/are quite a lot of classy builders, but no Dubois, as far as I know, and the other town is towards the centre of France in the countryside, and quite a small place. However quite a lot of quality French builders can be found in the back of beyond, and this Champigny is not all that far from where those superb Dilectas were made up until the 60s. Meral the builder, sadly now closed down, of quality frames and bikes was in a tiny village in the Loire Valley, as is, still, Jean-Marie Duret, maker of Duret and the export-orientated "Geliano" frames.. The foreman builder of Meral found employment with Duret before founding, nearby, his own very well renowned CYFAC company, which, having built top-spec frames for most of the French peloton in recent years NB Jean Delatour and Laurent Brochard, has now been bought out by Look or someone very similar.

As for the Dubois, I am 75% convinced- especially if the frame was of really sound quality - that it was probably made fro a shop of that name, by a respected builder called Daniel Salmon, of Plouha in Brittany. The link is the Salmon name on the frame. Salmon has built and is still building quality stuff even if the slim-line alloy guards he sells leave much to be required. In the late 70s or very early *0s he developed the "cadre plongeant2 sloping Time trial frame for thr French national team, using a 24" front wheel, and a seat tube with a flute cut-out of the tube and plated up instead of being indented. The tube was an aero section so it would have been fairly difficult to have pressed in the flute. That's as much as I can contribute on Dubois, but I shall be spending a lot of time in France this year, so who knows what I might find.

norris Lockley ... from the ever moss-covered streets of Settle