I would not dare to question Norris, but I can remember an English language article which mentioned this and I suspect it was in a "Sporting Cyclist", witten by Jock Wadley. The maker was stated as "Alcynon" (apologies if spelling mangled) and it was said to be an open secret that they made them. I gather riders would arrive with their saddle and handlebars/ stem and they would be fixed to the rest of the bike, issued by the Tour organisers. I gathered that the bikes were tendered for, so, over the years, there may well have been aother maker (s) No idea if they were then kept, or given back. and I do know that Tom Simpson had a Peugeot (ridden in the Isle of Man races and London Holyhead), made by Masi in Italy. John Purser Sudbury UK
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Message: 1 Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:19:17 -0500 (EST) From: crumpy6204@aol.com Subject: [CR] Who built WHAT? To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Message-ID: <8CD83089E74C122-1830-DCE5@webmail-m071.sysops.aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
OK Norris lets hear from you. It seems to me that all the bikes ridden in the TDF up to at least the late 40s POSSIBLY made by the same company, I would think (and at my age this is difficult) that it would have been a FRENCH concern, Norris our resident FRENCH bike expert. what company was this? Mercier possibly? Are any of these bikes left anyone on the list have one? It seems that you can't judge a book by its cover or some such, ref to Colins posts. Of course a handbuilt bike I would expect to be better than a massed produced one, Raleighs made by whom? Peugeots made by ???? Cinellis it goes on and on. Is the converted Hetchins, Bates Rotrax Claud etc you have GENUINE? makes you wonder! Cheers John Crump OldandgenuineBrit. Parker. Co USA
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