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CYCLIA French Bike...Sold by SEARS...

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Apparently I'm the only one with this anomaly of a bike... 🤪 Everyone else was smart enough to not get one.
 
I wouldn't know about that but I love this thread. I'm not even a lightweight fan but I'm drawn to this, probably because of the rarity and the fact that nobody seems to know all that much about it. I do hope you are planning to pull on it and make it back into a bicycle, but then again I am the master of hopeless causes LOL. 🤪
 
I took a very quick look at the bike today (@juvela I'll look at the grips tomorrow) to examine the headlight. I was shocked to see that it appeared never to have been opened! The inside was as clean as the day it was made. Didn't look close enough to see the manufacturers mark, but there is one. Something else to check out and see if it's also French made. 🧐
 
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the two biggest names in frankish illumination at the time of the machine were JOS and Soubitez

some examples from a catalogue of MCMXXXIX -

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if lens is clear it is a lamp made for export

if lens is yellow it is a lamp made for domestic french use

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I took the bike out for the first time since bringing it home and storing it, so it's still filthy. 😧

Hard to make out the name on the grip (it's on the underside mostly), but before I butcher it, I'm sure Roger will know.

What I noticed for the first time is that the cable for the rear brake runs through "clamps" that are made onto the frame. They appear to be crimped after the cable is put through, although it's possible it's forced through. Pretty work intensive welding for a lower end bike.

Headlight is Soubitez...Number 265...lower than the catalog pages show.

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FELT a rubber goods producer

IIRC they also did tyres & tubes for cycles

plastic saddles

may have also produced a type of rubber laminate saddle top (unclear)

FELT grip on a Manufrance cycle of the 1950's -

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FELT pedal rubbers on a Wonder cycle of the 1930's -

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cable clamps -

this method of holding cables to cycle frames was quite common on french bicycles for many years

here is the shell of an Alcyon brand machine circa 1954 -

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Very cool, thank you!

Apparently, when the guy I bought the bike from handed me the saddle, I never thought to really look at the bottom of it. I went to put the saddle on just to keep it all together and saw this.
Someone way back rigged it to fit another bike with a smaller diameter seat post. 🤪

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here is a mudguard mount arrangement of a Soubitez Nr. 265 lamp on a Helium (Peugeot) machine circa 1963 -

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the machine's rear lamp is a Soubitez Catalux

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I wouldn't know about that but I love this thread. I'm not even a lightweight fan but I'm drawn to this, probably because of the rarity and the fact that nobody seems to know all that much about it. I do hope you are planning to pull on it and make it back into a bicycle, but then again I am the master of hopeless causes LOL. 🤪

I don't know WHAT I'm going to do with it. I don't know of anyone that does frame work, and honestly, I don't think it's even worth the investment. For now, I'll just hang onto it for a while, if for no other reason the "rarity" of it. 🙄

Surely, there has to be some J.C. Higgins people out there with one of these. I can't be the only one...unless all the frames ended their life like this and are now remade into ashtrays someplace.
 
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