Welcome to The Velo Collective
The definitive resource for vintage French bikes.
If you love vintage French bikes, there are lots of reviews and restorations, bike repair tips and information on this site dedicated to classic bikes. You can also find posts on other vintage European, Japanese and American road bikes, many with links to videos on our Youtube channel. Thanks for visiting!
Laurent – a Rare Vintage Bike
Laurent, the Marque Laurent is a rare vintage bike, so when I went to buy this bike I really didn’t know what to expect. I could see it had some Campagnolo parts when I peered at the two small photographs on the listing, but everything else was guesswork. Isn’t...
Vintage Gitane Road Bike with a Chain Line Problem – Video
A History of Violence Perhaps this vintage Gitane road bike has no “wow” factor, it’s neither of really high quality nor is it impressively beautiful, but it’s a cool, lower mid-range bike from the 1980’s that I found for a good price. Is it worth blogging...
A 1986 Vintage Motobecane BC112, Huret Problems
Just Around the Corner I saw this cool 1980’s Vintage Motobecane standing outside a neighbour’s house, with a sign “á vendre” ( for sale ) attached to it. Seeing it in the distance, I guessed that it wasn’t a high end bike. The reason? Its red saddle. These plastic...
Vintage Trek Bike, the 500; Better than a Peugeot?
Video Review Below: https://youtu.be/wlvEAvGifUg Clash of the 501’s I recently posted a blog about the Peugeot PH501, though it doesn’t feel recent. It was actually in January, before the pandemic began and when normal, mask-free life was taken for...
A French Frameset, but Branded Battaglin?
Rebranded as Battaglin Someone wrote to me asking my opinion on this curious Battaglin track frame which he has recently bought. It has horizontal rear dropouts and lugs that I don’t recognise, but it is not an Italian frame. As you can see from the...
Peugeot HLE Road Bike: Broken Rebuild
An Unrideable Peugeot HLE The Peugeot HLE was owned by my brother in law from new, but a few years ago the rear chain stay snapped on it and the bike was ruefully stored in his shed. I sent him the quite striking replacement for it, a repainted frameset...
Motobecane Mystery Model
The Frameset Diggs got in touch with me about a very beautiful frameset he bought from an enthusiast in Paris, pictured below. As you can see, it's a lovely frameset, black with superb gold detailing around the lugs, gold decals, half chrome forks and...
Swiss Road Bike – a 1973 Juvela
Swiss Road Bike, the Marque Juvela "Juvela was a brand from Lausanne 1951-72 where I live and I don’t know why, very rare here! There is not a lot of information about, but as soon I got them, I’ll write you more about. Anyway a beautiful frame and even...
1985 Peugeot PH 501 – Video
Peugeot PH 501 from the 1980's I like this era of Peugeot bikes, a time when technology was changing and the brand's grip on the market was slowly but surely slipping away. Peugeot were still making cool bikes at this time, I'm in doubt about it. In...
Vintage Mercier Rose with Shimano 600
The Vintage Mercier Rose I’d had my eye on this vintage Mercier rose bike for a few days, so on the morning when I finally arranged to meet the seller and see the bike, I felt quite determined to buy it. It was about a 25 mile drive to the seller’s house, deep...
Felix’s “Arosa”: A Christmas Present for Donat
I Bet You.. ..£5 that you haven't seen one of these before. It has nothing in common with De Rosa, the Italian brand par excellence. This is an entirely different kind of objet d'art. I'm not going to lie, I had never heard of this brand when Felix got in touch...
Niaz’s Vintage Alan bikes and Peugeot Vitus.
Vintage Alan bikes and Peugeot Vitus Niaz wrote to me recently with some pictures of his superb French machines, his vintage Alan bikes and Peugeot Vitus, with some excellent informative background about them. He's kindly agreed that I can share them on this...
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