This instruction book sets its aspirations high, with its title of ‘Racing bicycle for future champions’. It is also possibly the most aesthetically pleasing instruction book I have ever seen. Every inch of it is designed, from the typeface to the line drawings to the photography (with a particular touch of André Kertész about it).

The book appears to describe a Favorit F6 bicycle, a four-speed thoroughbred with a Favorit pull-chain gear and either a 14, 16, 18 and 20 tooth freewheel, or a 15, 17, 19 and 21 tooth freewheel. However, its original owner maintained that it had been supplied with a Favorit F7 bicycle, and supplied the receipt dated May 1955 to prove this. I can’t tell you how an F7 differed from an F6, but there is probably someone, somewhere, who can.

A thing of great beauty.

• Publisher: Favorit
• Country: Czech Republic
• Date: 1955?
• Derailleur brands: Favorit
• Derailleurs: Favorit (1st style)