Some photos of the complete bike, and introductory information on BGA Velectrik bikes

I recently bought this bike and plan to strip, clean, and rebuild it.

The only information I could find about the brand was at these 2 sites.

• TONTON Velo (this forum is in French)
• Bicycle Specialties Blog

The bike is a BGA, which stands for Blanchard-Grange Armes. It was made in St Etienne in around 1935.
he derailleur and brakes are ”Velectrik” which seems to be the house brand of Blanchard-Grange.

The most interesting thing about the bike is the rear deralieur which is operated by a long leaver by the downtube, which in turn is linked to a rod which moves the derailleur

Here are a few photos of the bike I took before starting the work.

The bike

 

The badge is upside down!

Can see a serial number (83379) at the bottom, and BGA near the top of the dropout

One of the struts of the rack has broken off. I have the piece. Someone has done a terrible job of trying to fix it. I am trying to find a framebuilder near me who can do a much better job.

Saddle is in good condition

Nice Chainguard

Here you can see the rod that moves the rear derailleur back/froth/across a horizontal plate with a diagonal slot in it. There is a spring on the outside of the rod.

The derailleur leaver is the chrome you can see outside the downtube. It is connected via a pivot to the rod in the previous photo which moves the derailleur.

picture of the derailleur leaver from the other side.