[CR]MERAL team bike on French Ebay

(Example: Production Builders:Frejus)

Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 16:35:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Norris Lockley" <norris.lockley@yahoo.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]MERAL team bike on French Ebay


Some time ago there was an exchange of contributions on the List about the availabilty of Pro Team bikes, particularly those with some real provenance ..

There are quite a few come up on the French Ebay site but most of them, suh c as one of Stephen Roche's Battaglins, are outside the time-scale of the L ist.

However I hope that Dale will not be too upset if I stray just the odd year or so over the upper age limit to out a machine currently on French Ebay. There are good reasons breaking the rules for this machine.

The bike is a Team MERAL-RMO machine dating from 1986. It belonged to Thier ry Claveyrolat, who will be remembered for being a winner of two T-d-F stag es, as well as wearing the climber's jersey. Unfortunately, as happens from time to time with top Pro riders, he committed suicide in 1999 at the age of 40.

The MERAL team was the last of the line..and this frame belongs to the shor t-lived generation of MERALS built by Alain Baumann's Lejeune company after he bought out the rights to the Loire-based company which went to the wall in about 1983/84. The bike sports a Tout MAVIC build-up, making it one o f the last of the all-French-equipped team bikes. It appears to be 100% ori ginal.

As for authenticity, the seller lives at Bourg d'Oisans, the town nestling at the foot of the climb up l'Alpe d'Huez, whereas Claveyrolat used to live in the nearby town of Vizille - hence his nick-name of L'Aigle de Vizille ( The eagle of Vizille). Anyone visiting the last Alpine stage of this year 's Tour will be acquainted with both of these towns. I was in Vizille only recently and would have bid on the bike had it been for auction at the time .. The former rider's name is printed on the frame's top-tube.

Item No 150287119532, the starting price is 1000 euros..the auction has onl y one day to run. If anyone is seriously interested I think I can get the b ike collected by a friend who lives just an hour away from Bourg d'Oisans.

My apologies for outing this bike to the List, Dale, but I think the bike  deserves to be in the hands of someone who will look after and value it.

Norris Lockley, Settle UK