Paris Galibier

Eccentric but iconic English bike that’s still in production today

The Paris Galibier is about as French as jellied eels. The name might evoke Gallic sophistication and lofty cols, and the frame is exotic and beautiful, but in fact these bikes were made in a small workshop in Stoke Newington, East London, by Harry Rensch.

Rensch changed the name of his bike brand to Paris in the 1940s – he already had a reputation for high-quality frames, but it’s thought he might have been concerned his German-looking surname would be bad for business given the pounding London had taken from the Luftwaffe.

The Paris Galibier was also a departure from the traditional diamond-shaped frame. A full 50 years before the Lotus pursuit bike and carbon-fibre threatened to make conventional shapes and techniques obsolete, Rensch in London and the Baines Brothers in Yorkshire with their Flying Gate were improving on Starley’s original safety bicycle design.

A much shorter wheelbase was possible with the Galiber’s raised down tube and split seat tube, while the effectively much smaller main triangle was designed to increase stiffness and decrease ‘whip’. The twin top tube was made with two smaller-diameter tubes. Rensch joined his tubes together with a series of ornate hand-cut bilaminate lugs and fittingly finished off the frame with a large Eiffel Tower head badge.

Although the Paris Galibier was popular, Rensch ran into financial problems and closed the doors at Stoke Newington in 1953 – but the bike was revived by Condor. Rensch and Monty Young, Condor’s founder, were friends and it’s Monty’s son Grant’s “mission” to continue making the bike by hand.

The bike, however, is an original.

It has Osgear dropouts adapted for a conventional 1950s Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur. The single-ring cottered chainset, Laprade seatpost, lugged stem and Brooks saddle are period-correct parts, as are the Weinmann brakes. The cloth tape on the bars – and ‘race number’ from the Anjou Vintage Velo tell the story of this bike having belonged to a detaildriven retro buff.