Gosh,
As president of Rene Herse Bicycles Inc., should I be defending Herse, Singer, or the 10.5 million people who live in the suburban Paris area?
Mike Kone in Boulder CO
Rene Herse Bicycles Inc.
> OK...I know the answer already! They are worth just what anyone is willi
\r?\n> ng to pay for them.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> I am admittedly one of those Doubting Thomases when it comes to Herse fr
\r?\n> ames, not that I don't think there is some very good craftsmanship in the f
\r?\n> rames, it's just that I can't get into the plot.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> A 1960 Herse frame has just been sold on Ebay for over 1000 dollars, or
\r?\n> was that Euros?.It was one of Alex's collection. At the time that it
\r?\n> appeared on the auction, and there had been some reference on the List to H
\r?\n> erse having built for Bobet, I emailed the List to say that I had recently
\r?\n> acquired a very similar ,almost identical frame, even down to the colour, t
\r?\n> hat it is claimed belonged to Jean Robic...who of course raced alongside Bo
\r?\n> bet in the late 40s, and into the 50s. I wondered whether, therefore, Herse
\r?\n> also built for Robic.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> The other principle difference between the Ebay Herse and my frame is th
\r?\n> at mine does not have the (self-adhesive?) Herse decals on the down tube. b
\r?\n> ut whereas the Herse had the cheapest type of pressed cable stops known to
\r?\n> frame-builders, my frame has infinitely superior ones. My frame has the sam
\r?\n> e lugs...but they are filed up better. ie no file marks around the seat lug
\r?\n> and top-eyes. Whereas the Ebay Herse has "SPEEDY" tubing ( in over 50 year
\r?\n> s and an awful lot of French bikes , I have never come across it) mine has
\r?\n> Reynolds tubes. And the gear-side rear Simplex drop-out hasn't had a bit fi
\r?\n> led out of it..unlike the Ebay Herse.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> My frame, like the Herse, is elegant and nicely made, but it is a far ni
\r?\n> cer frame than the Herse, from the detail point-of-view. ie the rear gear c
\r?\n> able runs along the top-tube and down the seat-stay...Interesting really as
\r?\n> Robic was an ace cyclo-cross rider..handlebar control etc etc..and he didn
\r?\n> 't use cantilever brakes - hence no bosses on the forks and stays.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Now..for the $64,000 question. If I had put my frame on Ebay..extremely
\r?\n> elegant as it is..would it, without those self-adhesive RH decal, have made
\r?\n> any more than say...125 dollars..on a good day? But....had it had the adva
\r?\n> ntage of the RH stickers would it have soared over the 1000+ mark.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Someone commented that no French buyers rushed to bid for the frame or w
\r?\n> as that for the pink Herse bike? I spend time in three different parts of F
\r?\n> rance, quite a lot of it about one hour south of Lyon. Down there the nativ
\r?\n> es think that Paris is on another planet..or at least they hope it is..beca
\r?\n> use they don't like Parisians. It's a fact....Parisians are generally much
\r?\n> disliked in France as they are deemed to represent the political ruling cla
\r?\n> ss against the "paysans" the peasants ie anyone living outside Paris
\r?\n> and therefore in the countryside.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Any serious cycling tourist living in the Lyon area would have bought a
\r?\n> Longoni, or a Reyhand, or a Charrel...or a Routens..or any of the super fra
\r?\n> mes made by custom builders just down the road in St Etienne.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Recently I was shown what I consider to be the most elegant French touri
\r?\n> ng bike I have ever seen...that is from a stand-point of the detail on the
\r?\n> frame. It was a Charrel...and I think Alex has it now. So come on Alex..sho
\r?\n> w it to us, so that we can appreciate that there were other great builders
\r?\n> in France..and that Herse and Singer had their equals out there among the "
\r?\n> paysans".
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Norris Lockley, Settle UK
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
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