[CR]Jack Taylor myth and facts

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To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Jan Heine" <heine@mindspring.com>
Subject: [CR]Jack Taylor myth and facts
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 06:35:30 -0800

While we are discussing Jack Taylors, please be aware that the interview with one of the Taylor brothers published in On The Wheel a few years ago, was pure fabrication.

The author, Brian Todd, went on to fabricate not only interviews, but even entire persons from the old days. An example are the Mignon Brothers, of Cycles Mignon, who were the Belgian importer for Alex Singer bikes in the 1950s. Well, Cycles Mignon existed, but the proprietor was named Albert Lenoir (see Vintage Bicycle Quarterly #1, where you can see M. Lenoir in several photos). There never were any Mignon Brothers. (Among other things, Mr. Todd also claimed he was the sole importer of Alex Singer bikes in this country... despite the Singer shop never having done any business whatsoever with him.)

This is not meant to detract from the now-defunct On The Wheel, which was an excellent publication. (Back issues are available from the publisher, Gabe Konrad, at http://www.onthewheel.com.) However, it is the reason why Vintage Bicycle Quarterly uses such stringent academic standards.

VBQ hopes to devote an issue to Jack Taylor at some point in the future, in collaboration with Joel Metz (on this list).

Jan Heine, Seattle (no connection to On The Wheel, but a very definite one to VBQ)