Just finished earlier today, on French Ebay, there was a Mannheim Randonneu r full bicycle although the seller listed it as a "velo de course" I didn't out ot the List earlier because the seller would not send outside France.. ..more's the shame, because it sold for very little real money.
Serge Mannheim was, possibly still is, a constructeur living in the far nor th-west of France not far from Strasbourg, and the German border..in an are a where all the towns have German-sounding names. Obviously that piece of E urope has been shunted between nations at the end of various wars..was it c alled annexing..or something like that. The name Alsace--Lorraine comes to mind.
Serge was/is a well-known, regionally at least, builder of high-quality fra mes, particularly fairly radical time-trial ones and road-racing machines. Many of his frames, such as the one just sold were of lugless construction. The Ebay machine is the first touring Mannheim that I have seen. Although the seller of the bike is called Serge, I am pretty sure that he is not Ser ge Mannheim.
This Ebay frame follows the best of French design and finish, using the ubi quitous "Bordeaux" deep red paint (known as just "Flam ruby in the UK), wit h plenty of chrome. It has all the braze-ons for pannnier frames. lights et c. Like J-P Routens, Mannheim has used the extra triangulation of the seat- stays on to the top-tube, but the manner of fashioning it, probably to put the "SM" brand on it, appears to be contrived. The builder has also chosen not to use a brazed-on seat-bolt on the lugless seat tube, but has opted fo r using a seat-pillar, probably a Vitus or Stronglight one, incorporating a n expander bolt., Other French builders such as Mecacycle, and Daniel Salmo n had a preference for such pillars, particularly on lugless frames. Unfort unately when used with lighter gauge tubes such as Columbus SL, the wedge-s haped expander could produce slight bulges on the inside of the tube.
Mannheim's work was of high quality, but not having a large output, and bei ng based way up in a corner of France, his frames were not generally well -known, although he did exhibit on occasion at the Paris Cycle Show. The re latively low selling price just reinforces the parochial nature of the ligh tweight cycle industry in France.
Norris Lockley, Settle UK