Category Archives: Vintage French Bicycle

1929 Griffon Maiden Voyage

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This 1929 Griffon is the oldest bike I have restored.  It is in fantastic condition for its age, but even so, there are some elements of older technology on this bike that kind of gave me the willies today as I set out to take the bike on its first test ride.

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The bike has Westwood style steel rims, color matched to the frame along the spoke bed area, and with chrome for the braking surface.  Let’s talk a bit about that surface.  Westwood rims are usually found on bikes which use rod brakes.  Those brakes pull up on the brake pads to strike the rim on the surface near the spoke bed area, rather than on the narrow, rounder sidewall area.  This Griffon, however, has caliper brakes which push the pads horizontally toward the rim.  The original pads, shown above, feature a “pillow top” design which sort of grips the rounded edge of the chrome rim surface.  Sort of.  Even after sanding the pads using a small round file, I knew from testing the brakes on the stand that they would not be effective at stopping the bike, at least not very quickly.  I thought of installing some orange Kool Stop pads for today’s adventure, but the ear piercing squeals emitted from the front rim on the set I tried out brought to mind a thousand hungry infants wailing all at once.  So, I put the old pads back on and developed a plan.

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Motorcyclists (of which I am one) have some skills that many non-riders don’t know about:  the ability to ferret out non-disgusting bathrooms while riding at speed and peering through a helmet visor is one of them.  Another skill is knowing in the back of your mind where every single flat, empty parking lot can be found on a Sunday afternoon – these are lures for practicing slow speed maneuvers, which is a must for motorcyclists who take safety seriously.

The latter skill came in handy today.  I first drove the bike to my nearby huge empty parking lot.  The bike’s wheels barely fit into the wheel wells of my car’s bike rack.  Its wheelbase is 113 cm, one of the many oversize features of this great old machine.  After getting the bike off the rack and strapping on an old Carradice saddlebag, I leaned the tall bike over and hopped up on the long, leather Glorieuse saddle.

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Then I sailed around the parking lot, gingerly at first, and began accelerating and then attempting to stop.  After a while I found just the right combination of body english and leverage and was able to bring the bike to a halt after several wheel revolutions at speed.  Not bad!  The front brake had a bit of chatter, and did not perform as well as the rear brake, so there are probably some minor adjustments to be made to the position of the clamps which house the springs and which have a groove along which the caliper arms travel.  Each clamp needs to be positioned just right so that both brake arms move evenly and in tandem – see below.

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Reversed seat post clamp.

To make it possible for me to ride this bike, with its 59 cm top tube, I reversed the saddle clamp and also shoved the saddle forward on its rails, to bring the saddle as close to the handlebars as possible.  The 66 degree head tube kind of counteracts the effect of the long top tube, but because the stem is very short, this didn’t help as much as I expected.  The ginormous bars are 78 cm across – the widest bars I have seen on a bike.

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Even the bar diameter is oversized – 25 mm on the grip area.  So, no grips of any kind, modern or vintage, can be installed.  Probably, the bike originally had wood grips. But, finding the right size vintage wood grips now will be a challenge.  In the meantime, I hastily added some cork tape to make my ride more comfortable today – which doesn’t look too bad from afar, but not so great close up.

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I ended up resting my hands on the curved section of the bars, which was enormously more comfortable than having my hands on the grips.  The bike seems to have been designed for a long-armed broad shouldered giant!  Seriously though, probably the wide bars were useful in providing leverage over the cobblestones and rough roads of the time.

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Once I felt fairly confident about riding amongst the masses, I headed over to Springwater Trail and took a short jaunt to my favorite tiny getaway – Tadpole Pond.

I enjoyed getting the bike up to speed, and was greeted with smiles, and some astonishment, by other cyclists I encountered today.  The weather was perfect for riding, and I stopped to enjoy the birds and wildflowers.  The Griffon fit right in, looking a bit like a hobo bike.  Given all the homeless tents I encountered along the trail (camping a la Portland-style), the Griffon was a natural.

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Chromed sloping fork crown.

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Elegant Griffon lettering, paint in wonderful shape.

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Flip/flop rear hub with freewheel and fixed gear.

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Very pretty chromed crankset.

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Chrome Griffon hubs front and rear.

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Box style lining intact, oil port on the bottom bracket, beefy chainstays.

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Clamp-on pump peg, frame paint details.

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The lighting was just right for taking some close-ups of the bike’s features.  The  1940’s Tank pedals are from another project – the bike didn’t have pedals when I acquired it – but they look just right on this bike and worked fine for today’s ride.

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The Griffon head badge is one of my favorites, featuring the mythological flying Griffon in blue and gold, encircled in red.

I had no mishaps riding the trail today, even when some pedestrians walked out in front of me – we all just laughed as I swerved and screeched to a halt, Griffon – style.

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You can see how long, tall and wide the bike is by comparing it to my Meral, which has 650b wheels and a 49×51 cm frame.  Not only did the bike comport itself quite well, with the old Peugeot freewheel ticking sweetly while coasting, this ride reminded me that perhaps we are all too consumed with finding a bike that is just the right size, instead of riding the bike we have.  Lots can be done with saddle, stem and handlebar adjustments to overcome a bike that is a bit too large or too small.  Today’s ride proves that some bikes can be adapted to a wide range of rider height.

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Simplex Bellcrank Derailleurs

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Why did Simplex use a bellcrank on some of its vintage derailleurs?  I pondered this question as I was cleaning and lubricating a Simplex Rigidex derailleur, which was original equipment on this 1953 Follis:

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Sadly, I missed my calling as an engineer (I am a CPA in my day job), so I had to research the question of what advantage a bellcrank mechanism would have over a simple direct pull with a cable on the device that moves the derailleur cage.  Fortunately Wikipedia, and of course, Sheldon Brown came to the rescue.

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The Rigidex was one of several models to use a bellcrank, and was the lower end version of the Grand Tourisme model.  Other bellcrank models included the Lux and Gran Prix.

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1954 Simplex Catalog, courtesy of disrailigears.co.uk

You can see from the catalog scan above that the shifter cable lies inside the curve of the bell crank, and is anchored below with a screw.  When the shifter cable is engaged, the bellcrank mechanism moves against a pushrod/plunger that is housed inside the cylinder, and it pushes the pulley cage inward toward the wheel hub, moving the chain across the freewheel sprockets.  Since it pushes, instead of pulls, that means that it is a “high normal” derailleur. At rest, the derailleur lands on the smallest rear cog.  Simplex TDF and Record Du Monde derailleurs are “low normal”, with the pull-chain pulling on the coil/plunger to bring the cage away from the freewheel. Interestingly, the Cyclo Standard and Tourist model derailleurs have a dual action shifter, which is never at rest, as there is always the same amount of tension on the shifter regardless of which position it is in, a result of its dual cables (or single cable wrapped around the shifter) which actuate a helicoid to move the cage.  So, I guess you can say that the Cyclo is a “no normal” derailleur.

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Mimicking the effect of limit screws on modern derailleurs, the above nuts (identified with white arrows), can be loosened to allow re-positioning of the mounting bracket, so that the derailleur can shift properly over the particular freewheel installed on the wheel. This derailleur has a cage swing capacity for 4 speeds.  So, this isn’t really a true limit screw adjustment, instead it’s a hub/freewheel adjustment.

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While there are two springs used for this model, only one of them affects the chain slack.  The mounting bracket is rigid, so there’s no arm which can swing under tension. Instead the larger outer spring is attached to a braze-on on the frame, and serves to act as the tension on the jockey (upper) pulley.  The smaller inner spring keeps tension on the plunger/pushrod, allowing it to return back to its resting position when the cable is slack.  This contrasts with Simplex’ TDF and Champion du Monde pull chain derailleurs, which offer swing arm tension as well as pulley tension.  Even though Nivex came out with its far superior parallelogram rear derailleur back in 1938, the breakthrough was slow to catch on, so that even in the 50’s and 60’s many derailleurs lacked the greater shifting effectiveness provided by the transversing arms of a parallelogram.  Even so, having ridden bikes equipped with these old derailleurs, I have found that they work surprisingly well when properly set up.

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Pulleys feature ball bearings – a nice touch.

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Chain must be broken to be removed – unlike the TDF and Record du Monde models.

I had originally thought that this derailleur allowed the chain to be removed intact, as is the case with the Simplex TDF and Record du Monde models which feature open pulleys at the back of the cage.  That’s not the case for this derailleur.  A nice feature, even on this lower end derailleur, are the ball bearings inside each pulley, instead of bushings.

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So, what benefit does the bellcrank offer?  As I learned from my research, a bellcrank increases the mechanical advantage of a linkage, because the angle of the arms changes as the bellcrank is actuated.  Bellcranks are actually still used in bicycle applications, though not as elegantly as this one.  You can find them on Shimano internal gear hubs, among other applications.

Sheldon Brown

Sheldon Brown – R.I.P.

Sheldon Brown had fun illustrating the mechanical advantage of a bellcrank by featuring a bell which is rung by a bellcrank!

Is this mechanical advantage really needed for a rear derailleur system? It may have been helpful on high normal models which pushed the derailleur toward the hub.  It will be interesting to try this derailleur out on the road, but their application is limited to bikes with brazed on fittings, or by using special brackets which are now difficult to find.

Le Cycle Magazines from 1947 and 1962

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1962 Lambretta

I thought it would be nice to share some pages from the 1947 and 1962 Le Cycle Magazines that I recently acquired.  Many pages feature the iconic drawings of Daniel Rebour, as well as informative ads from the builders and component makers of the time.

These publications revealed that Daniel Rebour, in addition to creating technical drawings for bicycles and components, also drew mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles, as well as complex engine and transmission parts.  This was something I did not know previously.  Before publishing this post, I contacted a few of the publishers who had used Rebour drawings in their printed materials, to determine who owns the copyrights to Daniel Rebour drawings.  I didn’t want to publish them without obtaining permission.  However, after months of waiting,  I have received absolutely no response.  So, I am including Rebour drawings in the photos below.  If anyone objects – please let me know!

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Various components from 1947 as drawn by Daniel Rebour

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Trade show participants

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Ads for Nervex lugs, Huret, and others.

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More Rebour drawings from 1947.

The 1962 Catalog, photos shown below, was a real gold mine:

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The cover for the 1962 edition – mopeds and cafe racers were featured along with bicycles.

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48cc Ducati engine. If I had known about this little moped as a child, my parents would never have heard the end of it. Instead, I rode around on a little Honda CT70.

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Heralding Simplex’ disastrous foray into plastic, Rebour dutifully portrays these hideous components.

 

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A sexy 1962 Benelli Cafe Racer.

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Mafac – the best brakes pretty much of all time.

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Ads for Bertin, T.A., Atax and Tank.

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More lovely Rebour drawings – the bicycle depicted is a Rene Herse.

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Cafe racer style moped from Motobecane – 1962 model.

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These are just a few of the pages from the magazine.  These resources are invaluable to me as a restorer, revealing not only the trends and developments of the age, but also technical and cultural information which aids in the restoration process.