Royal Codrix Classic Randonneur 1950s

Royal Codrix was a brand which was installed by Robert Codridex somewhen in the late 1920s or early 1930s in the city of Angoulême in western France.
Many cyclists came to the Codrix workshop to have a bike made to their measure. And due to their excellent reputation for building special sports-touring bicycles and racing bikes, the company became more and more popular.
So popular in fact, that in the 1950s they managed to sponsor a professional racing team. The Team Royal Codrix even took part in the 1954 Tour de France!

Though it is not a professional racing bike from the 1950s we want to present here, it is an evenly desired and popular bicycle as far as the French mid-century cycling scene is concerned.
So called Randonneurs took pride in travelling long distances self supported on fast racing bikes which were adapted or specially built for touring. This sport grew immensly popular and can be seen as the historic roots of nowadays bikepacking boom.
The constructeurs, the bike builders which designed the machines for those riders, were not just frame builders but often developed new solutions and tuned parts where necessary to fit the purpose. Bicycles from famous constructeurs like Herse or Singer are now widely sought after.

We are happy to present to you a real gem a randonneuse from the golden age of its sport, our Royal Codrix from the 1950s.

There is not much which is not given away by the pictures but we want to highlight some details:
There is the rare Duprat Professionels compact crankset and the evenly rare Simplex Luxe shifting.
But the sought after Prior bottom bracket and pedals need to be named as well!
Little details like the 650b wheels and the specially soldered mounts for shifters are warming the heart of all randonneuse fans.

This bike is pretty rare in its mostly original setup and condition.
A top class piece for real connoisseurs and admirers of classic touring bikes.