[ORRando] Fwd: [SIR] Ernest Csuka, 1928-2009

[joshua bryant]

Many of you belong to the Randon list and the SIR list, but I thought  
I'd pass this along just in case.  Jan later corrected his birth year  
as 1927.
His mastery will be missed.  It would have been a real privilege to  
meet and to ride with Mr Csuka.
Our warmest sympathies....

-Joshua Bryant
cycles-j-bryant.blogspot.com

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Jan Heine <heine94 at earthlink.net>
> Date: December 23, 2009 8:10:13 AM PST
> To: classicrendezvous at bikelist.org, internet-bob at bikelist.org,  
> 650B at bikelist.org, randon at googlegroups.com, SIR at bikelist.org
> Subject: [SIR] Ernest Csuka, 1928-2009
>
> Ernest Csuka, constructeur of Alex Singer bikes for many decades,  
> died on December 22, 2009. He was 82 years old. Ernest Csuka was  
> the last of a generation of great constructeurs, whose work in post- 
> war France had shaped modern bicycles, with lightweight tubing,  
> modern geometries, and many aluminum components which later found  
> their way to racing bikes. Many of the bikes Ernest Csuka built  
> have been ridden hard for decades, and still are ridden today. They  
> combine light weight and a light feel with quality and durability.
>
> Ernest Csuka trained as a pharmacist, but started working for his  
> uncle, Alex Singer, in 1944, just 6 years after Alex Singer had  
> opened his shop. His brother, Roland, entered the shop around the  
> same time.
>
> The Singer shop already had a good reputation, both because Alex  
> Singer was known as a strong rider, and because the nascent brand  
> had presented the lightest tandem at the 1939 Technical Trials.  
> Alex Singer expanded his reputation for excellence by winning the  
> 1946 Technical Trials with perhaps the lightest cyclotouring bike  
> ever built, a machine that weighed just shy of 7 kg (15.4 lbs.)  
> fully equipped with fenders, lights (including a battery-powered  
> standlight), racks, even the pump, but weighed without tires  
> (lightweight tires were difficult to find just after the war).
>
> Ernest Csuka introduced numerous innovations to Cycles Alex Singer,  
> including the elegant stem with hidden binder and the matching  
> internal expander seatpost. He introduced Singer to the Nivex  
> derailleur, which shifted better and was more reliable then the  
> commonly used Cyclo. He also researched the geometries that made  
> Alex Singer bicycles handle so well.
>
> Ernest was no mean competitor on the bike himself, winning several  
> stages in the Tour de France Cyclotouriste and placing well in many  
> other cyclotouring competitions, also with his wife Leone on the  
> tandem.
>
> In 1962, Alex Singer retired and Ernest Csuka took over the shop.  
> It was a difficult time for bicycles, and in many years, only a  
> dozen custom-built machines left the shop in Levallois. Roland  
> began to work for Renault, and only came in on Saturdays to work on  
> a frame if there was one on order. As always, Ernest made the braze- 
> ons, the racks, the custom stems and assembled the bikes. The shop  
> kept above water by selling sporting goods in addition to bicycles.  
> Singers were favored by many randonneurs, and many of them were  
> ridden in Paris-Brest-Paris and other famous events.
>
> The 1970s saw a new popularity for cycling, and up to 120 frames  
> and bikes were made in a year, but the 1980s saw new brands and new  
> materials become popular. When Roland died in the mid-1990s, Cycles  
> Alex Singer continued to potter along, with most orders coming from  
> Japan. A few years ago, Ernest retired and handed the shop over to  
> his son, Olivier. Custom bicycles have seen somewhat of a  
> resurgence, with orders from France, the United States and Japan,  
> but the output has remained small. When I last visited earlier this  
> year, Ernest still came into the shop and worked on the bikes every  
> day.
>
> Ernest will be missed not only as an incredible fount of knowledge  
> about cycling, but also for his wit,  humor and friendship. Until  
> he suffered a stroke in 2008, he rode his bike every Sunday, rain  
> or shine, with his friends from the ACBO (Amicale Cyclotouriste de  
> la Banlieue Ouest - Cyclotouring Friends of the Western Suburbs). I  
> have been lucky to join him on many of these rides over the years,  
> and not only marvelled at his mastery of the bike (even at age 80,  
> he still had some of his famous sprint left), but also laughed at  
> the many jokes shared by this tight-knit group of friends. "Nénès,"  
> as he was called by his friends, will be missed by all. As they  
> say, they don't make them like this any longer.
>
> Jan Heine
> Editor
> Bicycle Quarterly
> 2116 Western Ave.
> Seattle WA 98121
> http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com
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> SIR at bikelist.org
> http://www.phred.org/mailman/listinfo/sir

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