20th December 2023 (No Comments)

This French AFA full suspension Randonneuring Bike was quite an advancement in Comfort & Style in 1955. The Randonneur Bike ” AKA, Hiker to the French ” is a Touring Bike for Getaways with bigger tires and comforts for long travel. This AFA tour bike a early version of the ever so popular Gravel Grinders of today. AFA was a French Bicycle manufacturer who most known for Christophe AFA toe clips, Bike Pumps, Toe Straps, and other bicycle accessories, I suspect this was there jump into the Luxury Bicycle market. The bike has many French advancements, it’s an early fillet brazed steel machine with Suspension that quite amazing. The Suspension is multiple layers of thin spring steel in a circle, oddly it works a lot better that other early suspension designs I have seen. It was very hard to find info on this bike, only noted in a few publications, I am unsure whether it was a full production, bespoke ride, or a show bike, it’s unique for sure. The bike is incredibly light weight and advanced for the time, Unfortunately it may of been too light weight and has led to only a few surviving bicycles.

  This AFA Randonneur Bike is a pretty amazing bicycle for the times. It has had a total Lux Low Patina Restoration, Rebuild, with Original parts to the bike as found. I once was irritated with French bikes because they were hard to work on, but now appreciate the Quality and Domination they held in the industry in the early days. The frame is Light weight Steel, I suspect Vitus Tubes. It has unique Front & Rear Spring & Pivot Suspension. Le Simplex Gears: Shifter & Rear Derailleur, and French Cyclo Freewheel. Lightweight Duralumin Parts: Handle Bars, Stem, 5 Pin Cranks & Chainring, Hubs, Rims, Le Martele Mud Guards, Alu-Dur Chain Guard. The Brakes look like CLB with no logos, oddly a lot of parts on this bike have no logos, looking like prototypes or even knockoffs. The wheels are 650B alloy Rims laced to what I believe to be New Star Hubs ( they have a Shooting Star logo ). 650b Wheels by todays standard is called 27 five. It has a Ideal Leather Saddle, Has a Lapize AFA pump, and some overly designed valve caps. The Grips & Spokes are newer replacements. This is a Cool French Randonneur Bicycle, Rebuilt & Ridable, but the Vintage Simplex gears will skip a chain, for that I feel this is more of a show piece than a daily rider.

Local Sale: Cash Pickup in Golden, Colorado. Cash Price is Lower than our web posted prices.

Non Local Sales: You will be billed through Paypal and Shipping is: $400 for this bike to most of the US.