The Auguste Causse Toujours is a lovingly hand-built one-off. Such a special steel trail bike is created when a frame builder designs not only the chassis, but also the suspension fork itself and hand-finishes the add-on parts. It is rare to see such an extraordinary mountain bike. That's why we took a detailed look at the Auguste Causse Toujours.
Augutse Causse Toujours in detail
- Area of application: MTB trail / bikepacking
- Front/rear suspension travel: 130/130 mm
- Wheel size: 29"
- Frame material: steel
- Weight: approx. 16.5 kg
- Price: n.a.
- Special features: hand-built steel frame, fork developed in-house, light system, integrated seat clamp, equipment made in Europe
Adventurous & suitable for adventure
Victor Duchene is an artist who has dedicated himself above all to mobile works of art made of metal. Founded in Brussels in 2012 and with his own boutique east of London for the first time in 2015, Duchene offers his services to passionate bicycle enthusiasts.
Five years passed before he moved the Auguste workshop to Lozerene in France and decided to build a frame for himself. Prior to this, he mainly customised and repaired steel bicycles in his workshop, but also built custom steel frames to order. Today, he still specialises in hand-built custom steel frames.
The Auguste Causse Toujours is, by his own account, the frame builder's most ambitious project to date, for which he even spent an extra night in the workshop. Many hours were spent polishing parts by hand. As a tribute to his work, Duchene has left the seams of the Causse Toujours unpolished.
The bike has a self-sufficient lighting system with SON hub dynamo and luggage holders for bikepacking adventures. A customised frame bag from Tangente Atelier serves as a frame bag. Two-piece seat stays are designed to absorb vibrations from the ground on long tours and ensure a more comfortable ride.
From the heart of Europe
Auguste mastermind Victor Duchene's aim is to marry bicycle frames based on French models from the golden age of steel frame construction with modern equipment.
The frame of the Causse Toujours is made from recycled Columbus Dedacciai tubes, which have been soldered with brass and fitted with internal cable routing. The rear triangle and the steel parallelogram fork are in-house developments by Duchenes. Both provide 130 millimetres of suspension travel from an Intend air damper.
For the rest of the equipment, the frame builder also made sure to use a high proportion of parts from his native Europe, such as the Ingrid drive unit and the Magura brakes. The eye-catching bike is fitted with 29 x 2.4 inch Pirelli tyres.
Conclusion
I love it when small frame construction studios come around the corner with unique ideas and projects. The Auguste Causse Toujours inevitably bears the signature of its artist and is reminiscent of French steel bicycles from the 1930s or 1940s. Thanks to the parallelogram suspension fork and bikepacking features, this unique piece is also technically fascinating. - Jan Timmermann, BIKE editor
Jan Timmermann
Editor
