I’m a sucker for a French bike. I like the way they look. The style of mixte frame here is “berceau”, which is “cradle” in French, describing the way the top tube splits into two and descends down from the head tube and swoops directly toward the rear axle. This is unlike many “ladies” bikes where a single top tube drops directly to the seat tube and stops there, and slightly different to a normal mixte frame where the top tube splits and drops directly to the rear axle.

So when I removed the ugly “SPORTS” sticker from the seat tube, it was an easy decision to replace it with a more traditional style sticker with “Berceau” on it.

As usual, I went through my process of breaking the bike down, ensuring nothing was frozen in place, such as the seat or stem. All was good, everything came apart, and nothing was missing. The only resistance was from the pedals, but a big lever got them freed; the cottered cranks were also stubborn, I had to destroy the cotter keys to get them out. Fortunately these were available at the local bike shop and I didn’t have to wait a month from an online retailer.

The stem is a French PIVO 22.0mm, but otherwise the bike isn’t particularly “French” other than the obvious frame style. There is no indication on the frame of who the manufacturer is; the chainset appears to be Sugino (or a copy), the cranks are stamped “Made in Taiwan”, the derailleurs are Shimano RS, the shifters are unbranded, the lugs aren’t fancy or indicative of a specific manufacturer. I don’t know that this bike is French in origin, but then again I don’t know that it’s not either. Does it even matter? It’s a nice little bike, one that would function extremely well as a commuter and replacing short car journeys.

After the “refresh”: the bottom bracket and headset bearings have been serviced, fully cleaned out and given new grease; it has new brake and shifter cables, ferrules/end caps, and housings; new bar tape; a new chain, and new tyres; I cleaned out and regreased the rear derailleur jockey wheels too. There’s a bit of patina (aka “rust spots”) on the frame – I just cleaned it up and that will have to be accepted as part of the bike. I checked out the wiring for the dynamo lights, it is intact, running internally through the frame to the front lamp, and it all works – though I did have to get creative with the mounting of the front lamp, flipping the mount over so the lamp housing wouldn’t collide with the handlebars. Finally, I got a kickstand for it, a really handy thing for not having to prop it up against a wall.

The fenders and rear rack cleaned up nicely. Always functional, now they’re a bit prettier and should last a long time. A pannier bag on the left side would work really well here, so as not to be in the way of the dynamo rear light on the right side.

Is it French? The stem and frame style is, but I have doubts. In any case, it’s a cute little bike, very functional, and now it’s in great condition again.