Brilliant Bikes of Concours de Machines 2024 (Part Two)

Following part one of our 2024 Concours de Machines coverage, here are six more bikes fresh off the two-day Voyage aux Pyrénées bikepacking trip, where riders circumnavigated and climbed the 2,877 meter (9,438 feet) Pic du Midi de Bigorre, the area’s highest peak. The campout consisted of two warm, dusty, and steep days and a wonderful night in an alpine meadow at the bottom of the Tourmalet.

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Among the six bikes are the second and third-place winners, Jolie Rouge and Khelonys, with some particularly sophisticated and unconventional machines. The overall winner is Roubam Cycles’ stunning V-brake 27.5″ bicycle featured in our first gallery. Let’s go ahead and get into it.

JOLIE ROUGElink

Rhone-Alpes, France

While it challenged this year’s theme, the Jolie Rouge Triplet is nevertheless one of the most eye-catching bikes of the year. Needless to say, it features a tremendous amount of work.

Julien Fritsch is an experienced builder who used all his talent and experience to create this masterpiece. It is designed for him, his 2.5-year-old son, and a potential third passenger in the future. Aside from the custom bags made by his sister (Pop Pins), there was also major innovation in the form of a freewheeled bottom bracket—in case his son would share the work—and a dual steering system connected by a tensioned chain.

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The whole package is based on a rigid fork and 27.5″ wheels to keep the lowest possible actual gear (with 28x52T), a very low center of gravity, and also a low weight (20 kg). While it’s not the most efficient platform to climb steep mountain grades like the Voyage aux Pyrénées, the machine (ridden by a single rider for the event) proved its capability and rallied the abbey de l’Escaladieu without any failure.

CAMINADElink

Ille-sur-Tet, France

Caminade is one of the most experienced builders at the event and brought the only titanium bike. Titanium is a difficult material to work with and Caminade integrates several interesting features, including a Pinion gearbox, elevated chainstays, a mullet wheelset, and a titanium handlebar with a fixed GPS mount. There is no 3D printing here because Caminade prefers to keep his welder busy rather than sourcing printed parts from the East.

The profile reveals real MTB geometry with a steep seat tube, slack headtube, and a fork probably more tuned towards enduro riding than long-distance bikepacking. The bike and its rider proved to be among the most efficient at the Voyage aux Pyrénées overnighter.

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Since Caminade is a multi-talented company, they also sew their own bags and forge their own knives, as evidenced by the damask blade sheathed inside the steerer tube.

AFFRANCHIlink

Foix, France

While conforming to the rules of the year, the bike from Affranchi takes great inspiration from the roots mountain biking with a klunker-style frame outfitted with additional tubing to help to fix luggage. The suspension-corrected has a ‘false’ truss used to carry a custom cylindrical bag, and once the event is over, it can easily be swapped with a regular suspension fork for singletrack riding.

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The packs are made by Atelier Rébié, another Pyrenean bagmaker used by several builders this year. They’re constructed from fabric repurposed from retired windsurf sails, printed with custom graphics. The frame bag is emblazoned with a map of the event.

Among many details, it’s worth noting the second derailleur hanger under the right seatstay. In addition to providing a spare hanger, its primary function is to safely store the derailleur inside the rear triangle during train travel.

KHELONYSlink

Epinal, France

The bike from Khelonys is built around a highly sophisticated rigid steel frame built for 27.5″+ tires, pictured here with 3.25″ rubber. Yann Babelian and Noémie Mauguin produced a complete bike with a custom frame, truss fork, bar-stem combo, and other clever details like integrated spoke tools as a headset cap.

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The Khelony is finished with a set of sophisticated custom bags from Pop Pins that has distinctive stainless reinforcements. In addition to metal work, they also put a lot of effort to coordinate the colours of components and bags, which achieves something really satisfying to the eye.

ZERO & COlink

Abbaye de l’Escaladieu, France

In the spirit of pure fun, golden age MTB love, and vintage vibes, we couldn’t resist featuring Zero & Co.’s bike. Made by Arnaud, a long time local framebuilder of the Toulouse area, the Zero & Co. is an homage to the history of mountain biking combined with an innovative spirit, complete with spring-powered suspension and an articulated chainstay below the bottom bracket. It was originally designed with elevated chainstays, but the lack of clearance forced Arnaud to change his plan. The ‘handle’ inside the main triangle is leftover from the original drive-side chainstay.

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The bike also sports other rarities, like a zero offset unicrown fork with truss-style smaller tubes in the front to support bags. While the welds are polished, the tubes are raw, which shows off the problems encountered during the build process, and later corrections mainly to achieve proper tire clearance.

AUGUSTE HANDMADElink

Causse Mejean, France

Not new to BIKEPACKING.com readers, Victor Duchêne, pushed the envelope of the Concours by showing the only full-suspension bike. His Causse Toujours awarded Jolie Rouge’s the (unofficial) prize of the bike requiring the most of work. The silver theme was pushed all the way and included deanodizing and polishing a Bike Yoke dropper post.

The bike is build around common 29 x 2.4″ tires and the fork uses a suspension truss design, with a parallelogram between the fork legs and the stem. A standard rear shock from Intend is used and the front/rear travel is a balanced 130mm on both ends.

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Beyond suspension, the Auguste Handmade machine tries to answer most of the Concours rules, including an integrated front and rear light powered by a SON hub, while the luggage (non shown) are mostly supported at the front of the bike.

That’s a wrap! In case you missed it, be sure to check out part one of this event coverage, and dig into past Concourse reports in the Further Reading grid below…

Further Reading

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