Congratulations to Facebook commenter Craig C, who was the first to identify that this ‘not a BMW’ was in fact a Ratier. Bonus points because he even found the article that I snagged the photo from.
This specifically is a 1962 Ratier C6S, one of approximately 1,200 bikes that Ratier produced in a 3 year period. The company actually goes back to 1904 and the bulk of their business has been in manufacturing aircraft components. They built bikes between 1959 and 1962, and they also dabbled with automobile production from 1926 to 1930. They’re still around building aircraft parts, though they’re now part of a company called Ratier-Figeac.
For more on the Ratier story, check out this other article from the BMW Veteran Motorcycle Club of America.
Special thanks to Somer H, who was in Paris for the Retromobile show two weeks ago and snagged this photo of a different Ratier model. I believe it’s a L-7, but I’m definitely no expert on this marque:
