1952 Peugeot BIMA re-build

[Terrotmt1]

All done!

Bike now ready to ride with all controls working and the 'period' number plate and lights on, and soon on a few sites for sale.
Thanks for all the help from everyone on this and the Terrot.

Any good links to places where I can sell my pair of French Follies please?

[mini-me]

Any good links to places where I can sell my pair of French Follies please?

Bloke in Shepherd Bush near the Westway will jump at these, as far as I recall, Steptoe is the name

worth about two balloons and a goldfish I reckon.

[Terrotmt1]

They refused to take it even for that price...

Now up on a classic car/motorcycle site.
Just putting the BIMA up for now then in 3 years time when I've given it away I'll put the Terrot up.

Now, form an orderly queue gents, cash only please.

BUT, seriously would like to swap the two for another project bike.

[john.k]

With Brexit ,there may be no more French tat imported......your examples may become valuable .

[Rex]

Yeah...that'd be it..

[Terrotmt1]

Ha!
Will make no difference I think, but apparently, Chambrier et Fils in France, a big parts supplier, is refusing to sell their tyres to the British trade outlets.

Getting their white wall tyres (the BIMA had them when new) is now near impossible. I found a set and the supplier had only 3 pairs left, others had non. You can only get the tyres from Chambrier…

I have found a better outlet for the BIMA, maybe the Terrot too so will try them for a Spring Feeling Sale, but if I can't sell I won't cry.
Might even ride them if I'm brave enough.

[Rex]

I'd be very surprised it a French tyre seller (or indeed any other product seller) can't or won't now sell to the UK.
Teaching the Rosbifs a lesson must be a lot lower priority than turning a profit.

[mini-me]

The French have never been our friends, not ever. Two faced lot.

They will now go on immense sulks and end up worse off.
I read French news papers on line,  Paris, according to some of them not only stinks of piss, but the dog poo is as bad as ever, and there is a plague of bed bugs not only in Paris but the provinces.
Constant strikes last week the police were fighting the fire brigade in Paris, New year there was the ritual burning of cars, some 150 area of Paris are no go islamic radical areas.
Last time I was there parts of it looked like Beirut, pickpockets and scammers galore.

Little Macron,whose economy is in trouble is  needs to do some rosbif bashing to distract from his own internal problems.

I used to be quite a francophile , but but my last vist ended that.

[Terrotmt1]

Last went to Paris about 15 years back, never again, agree with the above description.
However, imho anywhere else 'rural/village/old town' is superb and by and large the roads are good too as long as you are on a toll road!

I used to work in France in the 80's and in the 3 factories I frequented (in the Group) I only knew 3 sincere blokes who I trusted.
Head office was in central Paris so I avoided that place.

Rex: I'm sure the ££££ will speak in the end, it always does, 'Money makes the world go around'; true words to a silly song.

[mini-me]

With the French money always talks, De Gaulle who had previously blocked us from joining the Common Market, because we would not share US nuclear knowledge with them, had to let us in in the end because he needed our cash to mollify and subsidise french agriculture. De Gaulles behaviour 1940-44 verged on treachery. He hated us "anglo saxons".

The pictureesque old french village etc has largely disapeared as every thing becomes euro-ised, villages by-passed by extensive motorway building have lost their shops and restuarants and little hotels.  plentyof Macdonalds though.
I toured France on a bike 1987, 1991 back again in 2007, in between those years I was back and forth for pleasure and business reasons it was staggering to see the changes, all the above gone, incredible to think I had trouble finding a place to eat.

Why are their roads so good? EU handouts, ...why didn't we get some of it?
I'll never go back.

[Terrotmt1]

Interesting!
In the 80's I worked for a multi-national, Rockwell International, who had bought the Wilmot Breeden Group, car locks and a lot lot more.
Rockwell inherited about 8 factories, 5 in France that had been opened by Wilmot at the request of the French government after WW2.
The plants were all located in very nice country towns, my base was in St Die in the Alsace, a lovely town full of one high street, little hotels and even smaller restaurants.
Went back in the early 2000's and oh my, it had changed!
Factory was still there but the rest was like a UK New Town.

I'm not here to bash the French, there are many good aspects to that country, but it has lost a lot imho, maybe the UK has too!

[john.k]

The French farmers have a very effective way of showing dissatisfaction with politicians schemes......I d like to see the same thing here.

[Rex]

Of course towns etc evolve over time, but the USP (as the hipsters like to say) of France was this concept of blokes wearing stripey shirts while riding a bike and off to the local tin-hut restaurant where they could buy a cordon-bleu meal for 50p, and all to the tunes of someone on a squeezebox. (Irony alert)
I used to tour Normandy every year on various old bikes and I was always struck by how actually lacking the region was in even half-decent restaurants and cafes, and the poor choice on the menu of those that were.
The local supermarche (the size of a Co-op Local) used to shut for lunch and again at five pm, and again the choice was limited.
So much of the "old France" has gone, but the new France seems well behind the times in so many ways.

The French farmers have a very effective way of showing dissatisfaction with politicians schemes......I d like to see the same thing here.

Yeah, a year of weekly riots gradually destroying cities, jobs, and political confidence. Think I'll take conventional democracy thanks.

[mini-me]

don't forget setting fire to live sheep............

[Rex]

They weren't that bad, it was only British sheep after all..