Automoto Tour de France Velectrik Road Bicycle 1930s

Automoto is one of the many bike manufactures which grew in the French cradle of bicycle developement, Saint-Étienne. Founded around 1900 they specialised in high class bicycles and soon grew as famous as the other big brands, Alcyon, Peugeot etc. Their racing bikes were particularly popular among professional and high class amateur cyclists alike.
Automoto sponsered a Team together with Hutchinson for quite some time and their bikes were ridden to victories by the most famous riders of their time.
In 1923, Henri Pélissier won the Tour de France on an Automoto with Ottavio Bottecchia coming in second on an Automoto, too. And Bottecchia went on to win the race the next two years with a bike from St. Étienne underneath him. To give a demonstration of their dominance, the team won again in 1926 with Lucien Buysse on an Automoto.
And it is no wonder that their top racing model was called after La Grande Boucle just like our example from 1930s.

Automoto bikes and particulartly the racing models are exceedingly rare to find and when still in the original condition, it's a small miracle. And so we are proud to offer you this Automoto mod. Tour de France still in original deep green paintjob and equipped with authentic parts.

Most of them are Automoto branded and that includes the beatiful crankset with the cloverleaf motives. What makes this very bike even more special is the shifting. It is a beautifully simple yet precise and very reliable Velctrik derailleur made by company B.G.A. from Saint-Étienne. In the 1930s, cables were considered by many as not trustworthy when it comes to vital bicycle parts and many manufacturers were still preferring rod operated mechanisms. Just like the Velectrik which uses a giant lever alonglide the down tube. This lever is connected with the derailleur with two pulley wheels. Pulling the lever back draggs the deraiileur forwars and the special slanting slot pushes it either inwards or outwars and thus changing gear. It is easy to operate, chainalway has the right tension and the whole system is frankly bomb-proof.

A charming and authentic French bike of the hihest category which is fun to ride and a pleasure to admire on a wall.