Talbot Vanity Build

As soon as I discovered you could get Talbot badged frames in France I've kept my eye out for one on ebay.fr since it's my surname. Quite a few 56cm come up but that's a bit small. This one is 57.5cm which is still smaller than my current 80s framed fixie (59.5cm) but it'll have to do!

Arrived in the post from France today. A few cosmetic scuffs but not too bad and the main decals are in decent condition which is the main point :)

Not sure if it's 531 or 501 or something else entirely. Frame says Made in France so I expect the BB etc. will be odd sizes. The frame and fork weigh about 3.7kg and I want to try and keep the fixie build under 9kg if I can but that might be pie in the sky. Progress reports as and when :)

Stop saying fixie. It's well annoying....

My first girlfriends big sis drove a Talbot hatchback. It came from the factory without a left hand mirror, radio, rear wiper or other useful stuff. It had an engine roughly half the size of the one on my chainsaw. Built like a fucking tank though, passed it's mot without ever needing a penny spent on it.

I'd be surprised if you get it under 9kg without draping expensive parts all over it that should really be on a much nicer frame. Build it, ride it, enjoy it!
Good luck with the french threaded parts, the frame looks in pretty good nick so hopefully they'll just need a service instead of replacing.

Stop saying fixie. It's well annoying....

Sorry....

My first girlfriends big sis drove a Talbot hatchback. It came from the factory without a left hand mirror, radio, rear wiper or other useful stuff. It had an engine roughly half the size of the one on my chainsaw. Built like a fucking tank though, passed it's mot without ever needing a penny spent on it.

My Dad got given a Talbot Solara as a company car once. It wasn't the most luxurious car ever made.

I'd be surprised if you get it under 9kg without draping expensive parts all over it that should really be on a much nicer frame. Build it, ride it, enjoy it!

Yep, I doubt it too. I'm not going to spent loads on it. It's just a bit of fun.

Same badge as the last Talbot cars too. Wikipedia says that Talbot went 'defunct' in 1992 so the frame won't be any younger than that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talbot

Velo Orange do decent French BBs, btw

Pretty good chance that your BB will be British/ISO (there wasn't a separate French headset standard): even Peugeot had stopped using French BB by the mid-Eighties.

The seat post might (like Peugeot) be an odd size, in which case this one is a cost effective option: the shim can be adapted to fit an even wider range of tubes.