About Ebykr
Ebykr celebrates classic and vintage lightweight bicycles through provoking imagery and opinion. Ride along with us.
Step back into the workshop of Spécialités TA, the small Clamart firm whose duralumin chainrings and cranksets carried some of the biggest names in cycling for over seventy years. This gallery gathers the company’s period advertisements, catalog pages and technical…
André Maury built his reputation in the shadow of better-known Parisian constructeurs like Alex Singer and René Herse, working first from the 15th Arrondissement and later under the corporate banner of S.E.C.T.A.M. His fillet-brazed frames and quiet technical innovations, including a 1948 threadless stem decades ahead of its time, mark this timeline of French cyclotouring's golden age.
Prolific Innovator While the Golden Age of French cycling is often synonymous with the legendary workshops of Alex Singer and René Herse, André Maury occupies a unique space as one of the undercelebrated, almost unknown masters of technical integration. Establishing his…
Setting the Stage When reminiscing about the crowded field of mid-20th century Parisian constructeurs, familiar names like Alex Singer and René Herse usually consume the largest share of the conversation. Their machines have come to represent some of the most…
All About the Francs, and Palmarès Very few marques from classic cycling’s golden years are as simultaneously transparent and opaque as Cycles Mercier. Wonderful examples of the company’s craftmanship abound in their namesake bicycles, spanning the pre-War 1920s through the…
The story of Cycles Mercier is inextricably linked to its master strategy of brand management and horizontal integration, a philosophy that ensured its longevity even as smaller rivals struggled to survive. Over its 66-year reign, Mercier established no fewer than…
The storied history of Cycles Mercier spans well over a century now, marked by rapid industrialization, a long-running racing dynasty, pioneering technical innovations (like the Méca Dural frame), and dramatic corporate collapses and revivals (note the use of plurals here).…
MAFAC’s story is that of a specialist brake innovator facing the rise of integrated groupsets. For 20 prosperous years, MAFAC filled a crucial gap by creating brakes—like the pioneering Criterium cantilever and revolutionary Racer center-pull models—that were revolutionary in their…
Introducing MAFAC In the historical archive of classic lightweight and vintage bicycles, some components get relegated to lowly footnote status, while others stand tall as towering monuments to engineering achievement. Among the latter, the name MAFAC—an acronym derived from the…
Custom Handmade Frame Upright randonneuse arrangement and geometryFine build by accomplished constructeurOriginal twin top tube design is nicely uniqueWonderful lugwork throughout, like early NervexArtistic caps on seat stay tangsChain stays reinforced with tangsCenter mount bridge for rear sidepull brake2x fender/mudguard…