Favor Branded Automoto Road Bicycle 1930s

Favor is a French traditional brand founded by Etienne Guillaume in 1898. Originally, Clermont-Ferrand based Favor produced motorcycles and later also mopeds. The production of bicycles started in 1904 and Favor bikes became quite popular. The brand with a raging Panther in the badge closed in 1977.
This Favor road bicycle with serial number 524294 dates back to late 1930s. It arrived in our shop in refurbished condition with many original parts.
The original Favor crank set is particularly beautiful and the saddle is also Favor branded. As for the rest, you will find a flip-flop hub from the French company Preference, wooden Ghisallo rims and also a pair of Rota caliper brakes. These are both operated by a single lever on the right side of the bars.

But a real twist is, that the frame itself does not seem to be Favor-made at all! An Expert checked the bike and the frame number did not match up with any Favor bike at all. Instead it seems to be a rather rare Automoto model!
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.

Whatever the history of this mongrel of high-end bike brands might be, this classic French bicycle from the 1930s will either look stunning on your wall or will put a big smile on your face when you take it for a ride.