The beginning…

When I was in my early teens I wanted a “Racing Bike” badly to replace my worn-out kid’s bike and my then LBS had a near new racing bike in the front window.  It was so beautiful – a light green with a lot of polished chrome too – and it had derailleur gears front and back.  I arranged a loan (with great difficulty) from my father for 19 GBP to add to the 12GBP I had saved from mty paper round and bought the bike!  The bike was an Andre Bertin C31.  Made in France and a cut above the average where I lived in the "cred" stakes.

That bike and I became great friends and it went everywhere in southern England.  It even entered quite a few road races…

Anyway – on moving to Adelaide – the C31 got left behind in fact it was returned to the LBS I had bought it from.  But many years later - I saw another...

The frame and fork.

In July 2009, I saw advertised on eBay – an old steel frame “possibly a Bertin” - but definitely French.  I looked at the pictures and it really did indeed look like a Bertin.  Impossible to work out which model exactly but it appeared to be from the 1970s.  I bought the frame and took it home.

On close inspection the frame was straight, rust-free – but did have dents and really poor paintwork.  There were no decals left on the frame to help identify the model number from the steel tubing. 

The frame as bought - above. (sorry about the blurring)

I decided to have the frame blasted by “Adelaide Fast Blast” (Dudley Park). 

The frame came up well and I need to make a number of decisions on what I really wanted to do with the frame.  Did I want to do a completely original restore (even though I wasn’t sure of the exact model)?  Should I do an update to allow use of more modern (and hence lighter) components?  Could I do a compromise?    After research – I decided to try the compromise. 

I would fix the frame’s dents and add lugs to the down tube to allow for screw on friction shifters OR to accept barrel adjusters using for cables coming from integrated shift/brake controllers on the handlebars.  I would also have the rear dropout spacing widened to 130mm from the original 110mm.  This latter step is better done by not just bending the chain and set stays to spread the rear dropouts but by doing it while the steel is warmed a steel worker.  To finish this – I had the cross piece between the seat stays replaced with a longer piece suited to the new spacing.

All the welding was done by “Green Welding” (Gepps Cross).

The frame was now able to take 700C wheels (130mm rear spacing of the dropouts) and to have either original down tube friction shifters or yet-to-be-modified barrel adjusters.

The "repaired" frame - above.

The choice of paint was either enamel or powder coat.  I had a preference for powder coat’s durability but wanted enamel’s range of finishes.  The colour was to be a “French blue”.   In the end I chose a "newer" approach to powder coating that allow for a better finish both smoother and with a metallic highlight.

The paintwork was done by “Artmetal” (Holden Hill).

The painted frame - above.

The fork is stamped as “Durifort” – French steel from Atelier (Vitus) – and very heavy.  It again was in fair condition and I decided to just rechrome and not to paint the upper portions (after all - I will only use the fork inthe frame occasionally).

The chrome plating was done by “Klemzig Platers” (Klemzig).

Finally, the decals.  This was a challenge but in the end some were found in the United States “velogear.com” and applied to frame.  An acrylic clear coat has been applied to the frame to assist with UV stabilisation of the decals.

The painted and "decaled" frame - with original headset and forks - above.

I will add to this blog next week with details of all the components used in this bike’s new two mode restoration. The hunt for original era components has been very enjoyable. 

This restore has given me a lot of pleasure but overall al ot of deja vu and nostalgia. Other restores I have done have not had the poignancy of reconstructing a happy era from my past.

For more information about Bertin Cycles:  http://bertinclassiccycles.wordpress.com/