• Can't find pics of my Fisher, French bike made in Paris, in the early 30s, maybe even before...

    Can you take some pictures of the Fisher? Would really like to see it.

  • Can you take some pictures of the Fisher? Would really like to see it.

    Two years later! Turns out I'm at my parents and was looking at this thread before breakfast... I went to the garage, quick dusting and photo shoot in the garden.

    So, this is not the most sympathetic restoration, but it was a long time ago and I did what I could... I worked in Paris then and found that bike in a skip on my way to the office. No wheels, rotten steel mudguards. I was cycling but managed to drag it to work. I couldn't take it home because I lived at relatives, no space for it. So I left it at work, which was in some kind of industrial mews. Most days after office hours I'd spend a bit of time on it. "Re spray" (there was nothing left of what would not have been the original paint anyway) with some mat black anti rust paint, which kept the bike in its "legit patina"... I think this part of my job was ok... Metallic grey car paint for the (O so classy Philippe) stem/bar combo and seat pin... They were really really not good cosmetically, I could just have brushed and do some kind of blackened steel effect, but whatever... Rebuild and re greased the bb and headset if I remember right, and re installed the only and rear brake, strange, but that's how I found it. Red bar tape, because the old rotten crackly handles were red. The wheels are obviously not period, I bought them at the local decathlon at the time, 700c, some (still made in France) Rigida rims on generic hubs.
    I wanted steel mudguards and these are from a shop in Paris that do Dutch bikes. Sadly they came with too short stays, so setup is a bit weird, and limited tire size to 35c. An easily perfectible thing though. I never got round repairing the front porteur rack that came with it, because it needs brazing at the ends of the stays and I didn't have the facility.
    When I finished the bike, which was made in Paris I believe in the 20s / 30s, I rode it home and it felt like traveling back in time, going over the Seine on the Austerlitz bridge. Awesome feeling.

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