We don't know how many Demontables were made, but Lyli Herse said "Quite a few." I know they are rare in France - serious cyclists rode from home, and those who put their bike in their car to drive to the country where they felt more comfortable riding, did not spend the money on an Herse.
However, in Clifford Graves' group, there were quite a few Demontables, because they facilitated flying. So they are more common in the U.S., but still quite rare.
Any statements on exact productions numbers most likely are bogus, as those records no longer exist, and in all my research, I never have met anybody who had seen them. Unfortunately, like so often, it is becoming harder to distinguish between fact and fiction or even outright fabrication.
I know of at least 9 different Demontables... and I am sure there are many more. Overall, our best estimate is that around 5000 René Herse bikes were made, +/- 1500. In fact, if we could establish a database of RH bikes with their serial numbers, we could refine this guess considerably. If you have an RH bike, or access to one, I'd love to get the serial number, perhaps with a short description of the bike. The number consists of two parts - the running number and the year. It is found on the rear left dropout and underneath the fork crown.
If you have an invoice with a date, that date also would be useful. Once we can estimate how many bikes were made in any given year, we can get a better estimate of the total number made.
I will treat the information you provide confidential, and will not associate the bike number with your name in my records. So your privacy is assured.
Finally, I would be surprised if more than 100 of these 3500-6500 RH bikes were Demontables. However, note that the latter is just a gut-level guess.
Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly 140 Lakeside Ave #C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.bikequarterly.com
>Hi ho Alex and Jan:
>
>There is a sub-list rumor floating around that
>relatively few Demontibles were actually made by
>the Herse establishment. (The statement was on
>twelve, which seems implausible)
>
>Are there any productions numbers known?
>
>Thanks
>Dale
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>Dale Brown
>cycles de ORO Bike Shop
>1410 Mill Street
>Greensboro, North Carolina 27408 USA
>336-274-5959
>http://cyclesdeoro.com
>http://www.classicrendezvous.com
>http://www.carolinacup.com
>http://www.greensborovelo.com
>http://www.bikegso.org
>http://nbda.com
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>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: alex m <alexpianos@yahoo.fr>
>To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Sent: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 8:07 am
>Subject: [CR]Rene Herse demontable
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>Following recent discussion about levers and their
>functions, here is the link to a demontable where I've
>tried to show some details of how exactly the RH
>demontable "woorks"
>
>http://www.reneherse.com/RHdemontable1968.html
>
>Alexander March
>Bordeaux
>France
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