Dont despair Nels...the wonderful bikeshop and business that was Urago has not been forgotten. although it did cease selling bikes somewhere in the mid-80s, probably because by then the two brothers, Joseph and Francois had started to concentrate on developing the long-established motor cycle side of the business to such an extent that by mid-80s URAGO FRERES had been appointed as the importer and distributor for Provence for Yamaha (or was that Kawasaki?) The company still traded from its original premises on the Rue de la Republique when I was last down there for the Paris-Nice, a few years ago.
The impressive workshopsin the back streets of the old town of Nice that had accommodated at rheir peak in the late 40s and early 50s over fifty framebuilders and engineers, has long since disappeared..and all framebuilding petered out by the late 60s at which time the shop bought in frames from larger manufacturers. In the early to mid 80s the best Urago frames were being supplied by Jean-Marie Duret's company, with his Geliano brand frames being rebadged as Uragos. VITUS 979s were also very often rebadged too.
Just seeing the faded facade of the old shop was, for cycling nostalgia freaks like me, just as good as seeing the Taj Mahal..no it was better. The Rue de la Republique - could you find a more French sounding name! -is a long straight road that runs from west to east..with No 17, Ets URAGO, being on the right hand side, heading towards Italy. The street is always busy with cars and cyclists and I seem to remember that the first time I saw it there might even have been tramcars on it too. But even so it was not easy to miss seeing and being impressed by the erstwhile elegance of the shop's crepied facade on which the Mediterranean sun has remorsely bleached the pink lime rendered paintwork, but only in so far as to emphasize the names of those long-gone icons of French cycling - Simplex, Wolber, d'Alessando, Velosolex.. whose emblems and logos sign written in now flaking black paint just about manage to cling like the local lizards to the ancient rendering. And arcing above them all was ETS URAGO FRERES - DEPUIS 1930.
In 1985 I was lucky enough to be working at the Paris Show..and to shake the very large hands of the two quite small and heavily sun-burnt freres Urago. It was quite a moment as Jean-Marie Duret introduced us..and I recalled the superbly elegant Simplex, Lam and Durax-equipped Vitus-tubed URAGO road bike that had been my pride and joy some thirty years earlier.
Urago frames are highly prized and well known through-out France. The 50s models turn up from time to time but tend to fetch good prices...although the last Ebay one - on English Ebay - was well disguised with handpainted black enamel virtually obliterating the finely choselled and filed Nervex Serie Legere lugs, managed to disappear without a bid.
Paying hommage to Ets URAGO is one of my current projects and my first efforts at rendering them immortal can be seen at : http://www.flickr.com/
A failure in some operating system in my computer is preventing me from uploading many more photos and commentary but I vow that I will get there eventually...and I intend to mention that American road racer Jo Magnani who, in the 1930s, did so much to enhance the reputation of the fledgling Urago pro team
Norris Lockley..Setle UK