When I saw the title to this contribution I began to sweat a little in anticipation of possibly bidding on and forking out a lot of euros to buy a rare early Sabliere frame welded up in duralumin. I already have a steel from built by Sabliere Senior, way back in the 50s...but an aluminium pne on the lines of a Barra, was really something to whet the appetite.
What the FRench seller actualy is purveying is an extremely well polished Mecadural frame from the 40s/50s into which he has inserted a pair of aluminium forks made by Abndre Sabliere sometime in the late 70s/early 80s. The former is very ornate with its large cast lugs and clamps while the latter is very smooth and seductive..but it has to be admitted that, from a distance the effect is interesting. Mecadurals generally were supplied with a run-of-the mild steel fork not an alloy one.
The Sabliere fork is like all Sabliere forks that I have ever seen A very accomplished welder Sabliere never..or at least I have never heard of one - welded up a pair of alloy forks. The ones in this advert are aluminium blades bonded onto an aluminium crown; the fork ends are also bonded in. Presumably he suse an epoxy type bonding agent. However there is a possibility that the forks were made for him Lyon Raccords ( later to be called Duracycles) of Lyon. This company was basically an engineering company that did all the machining of components for frames such as TVT, ALTEC, GUICHARD - all fore-runners in the aluminium and carbon-tubed frame market. Certainly the firm would have machined up the fork crown and drop-outs for Sabliere, from castings made by a local foundry called Fonderie St George.. After machining the components were sent a couple of doors away to a firm that polished them. All the lugs for TVT and the early LOOK -La Vie Claire carbon frames were made by these companies. A few years later the firms did the same operations for RBE who took over in a small way when TVT closed down..that should be shut down by LOOK.
Norris Lockley...Settle UK