If you follow the obvious European Ebay bike auctions you can often pick up a real team bike with good provenance. I tend not to follow German and Italian Ebay but on the odd occasions that I have done so I have come across several bikes..and also a couple on Belgian and Dutch sites...but sellers in these last two countries seem very loathe to send anything outside their own small countries.
In the last four months or so on French Ebay I could have bid on a RMO-Liberia team time-trial machine..all MAVIC equipped from the 80s, one of Jacky Durand's bikes, one of Bernard Hinault's Gitane-Renaults, an ex-Virenque Peugeot, a Thierry Marie machine from Castorama days..and one of the early elegant aluminium frames used by Cyrille Guimard's last team, that Fignon rode in, plus several more recent bikes of the aluminium and carbon variety. Provenance is usually very good.
However if you want to collect bikes from within the List's timescales it is more difficult but not impossible. From Ebay I have collected two Peugeot team bikes and one frame from the late 70s - early 80s, a Motobecane- La Redoute from 1982, two Carreras from Italy, plus the real finds of one of Henri Anglade's 1965 Sauvage Lejeunes, a very slightly later Lejeune that Bernard Guyot road in the GP des Nations and Barachi Trophy, a Sauvage from Georges Groussard, a Special-CNC from the 50s, a Geminiani from the 60s, a superb old Mercier also from the 60s, and a 1936 Alcyon. Meanwhile on the pending list , so to speak, is a Magnat-Debon linked to Jean Robic, and a Gitane from Anquetil's team in the 60s, plus three others, in their wrapping paper from a 1930s French pro, whose name is hand-painted on the frames. I once had Jeannie Longho's 1992 titanium frame..but sold it on as it was boring. The same fate happened to one of Lemonds ADR-Lottos purple and yellow TVTs from 1989. That wasn't boring it just was too big for me..and a customer wanted it..for good money. All except three of these came from Ebay and some of them cost as little as $50. One advantage of the bikes I have is that most of the riders are still alive and contactable, and lucklily I have found that many of these old stagers are only too happy to spend time helping out.
Of the ones that got away..Well five were taken from me last year by an Ebay seller..illegally according to Ebay's rules..but the company didn't help at all. On that occasion I was just browsing French Ebay and came across a curious photo...that of a cellar. At the end of the cellar there was a window that allowed a shaft of light to illuminate the higher curves of the barrel-vaulting..just enough to show a row of bike frames hanging from a rail on the wall. From out of the protective-paper-wrapped frames projected seat pillars..at the end of a pair of forks sufficient paper had curled back to reveal mid-red metallic livery.
The seller noted in this advert that these had belonged to a certain French pro of the late 40s to early 50s called Camille Clarembosq, who rode most of his time for the firm Arligue..and who had had the temerity to beat France's rising star, Louison Bobet.
Exchanging emails with the seller it turned out that he was Camille's grandson, and that two years after his relative's death he had been given the task of emptying the old man's stash of equipment. The frames, he told me, were part of the supply allowed to his grand-father and all were as delivered..NIB..or words to that effect. He insisted that there was no reserve but that the winner had to pick them up. If you have ever seen an Arligue, then you could realise my delight at the possibilities offered by this auction..Arligue's are rare and beautifully delicately made..and here were five of them.
To pick the frames up it would have meant a slight detour of a couple of hundred miles on my way down through France..but the route would have taken me through Chartres, Versailles and Orleans...nothing too off-putting there.
In the event I was the only one who put in a bid. as not too many Eaby-watchers go in for cellar-clearances...at then starting price of 55 euros...so I won them. It was only when I tried to make arrangements to pick them up that matters went wrong. Suddenly the grandson began to realise that he did not have the right to sell them on Ebay because his sister was advertising them..and had actually sold them by some other means. I think that the French word "Merde" just about summed up my feelings...and threats of murder or worse or appeals about the Entente Cordiale between our two nations and standing together on the beaches of Dunkirk or the bogs of the Somme were to no avail.
Of others that got away one was one of Charlie Gaul's bikes...think it was a Genial-Lucifer. That came my way because I have some friends from Luxemburg with whom I cycle on holiday and they were very close friends of Charlie's..and Charlie was a good friend of Brian Robinson..a former team club colleague of mine. To collect that bike it had meant taking some time..about an hour or so..out of our return journey up through eastern France...but my wife who lives in constant fear of missing every boat on which she books a crossing, vetoed the visit to Dudelange in Luxemburg..and sadly Charlie died..and his belongings were disposed of by other means.
The other significant losses were one of Fausto Coppi's 1949 Tour de France Bianchis bikes..and one of Chris Boardman's CORIMAs. The Bianchi had been bought in after the Tour by Gerald O'Donovan and his brother when they owned Carlton Cycles. Gerald was so overwhelmed and impressed by Fausto's win that he thought that the bike must have some magic design formula...so he negotiated the purchase with Bianchi. His idea was to analyse the design and then to copy it. Having done this the bike was put in the back store of the Carlton workshops at Worksop where it was to stay until Raleigh bought out the company..To cut a long story short...when Raleigh, or Ti started to down-size the company's manufacturing base, a frame-builder from the south of England, whose name I forget, approached Raleigh to ask about the Bianchi..and was told that they had no further use for it and that they were open to offers.
Needless to say he bought it..and for some unknown reason, about six years later he rang me to enquire whether I would like to buy it from him..As I had only recently seen it on display at the Harrogate International Bike Show, I knew just what it was like...very very original..right down to the cracked leather saddle and the unravelling plastic on the brake cable outers casings. But it was a BIANCHI ..and a very special one at that...and I was a real fan of Fausto.
HOWEVER at £1200..or about 2300$ in today's money it was expensive for a bike that was just too large for me..so I passed on the opportunity..and don't know to this day where it went..but to make up for what the seller took as deep disappointment on my part, he gave me one of only 40 lithographs he had made of Fausto in full flight...and that gem really does give me so much pleasure.
Now..for real team bikes in prospect...there is the little matter of a 1951 La Perle that, it is rumoured, was used by Hugo Koblet in the '51 Tour..and even as I write this contri..I am awaiting a 'phone call to learn what Albert Bouvet's opinions are on the matter. Who's Albert Bauvet? He wasn't as good a rider as Hugo..but he did manage to win the French Pro Pursuit title five times..and might just have ridden with the Swiss who was not only as elegant on an track bike as he was on a road machine, but had been known to be quite a useful rider too...
Norris Lockley...Settle UK
PS My wife keeps asking me what I intend to do with all these ###### bikes?
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