Good eyes, Harvey. Indeed, French speedometers used a rubber band (better quality, of course) as a belt drive to a pulley on the front hub. I suspect this created less drag than a Bowden cable drive, with its 90 degree gear drive at the hub.
Speedometers were somewhat fashionable in the 1930s and 40s. The next VBQ shows a 1930s tandem with one, and I believe Mike Kone has an Alex Singer (1950?) with a speedo attached to a braze-on mount on the fork leg.
It appears that once cars had siphoned off all but the most ardent cyclotourists, speedos and similar gimmicks fell by the wayside. But they were good to impress your friends, like rally stripes on a car! (Odometers for navigation weren't so important then, as most rides used the main roads. Only with increasing traffic in the 1970s, rides switched to back roads, where navigation became an issue. Altogether, French roads are much better signed than ours, so if you have directions or a route sheet, it is hard to get lost.)
Finally, the Faure of the bike shown in VBQ is from St. Etienne.
Another Faure, from Lyon, entered the 1947 technical trials. And
since Faure is such a common name around there, I am sure there were
other cycle dealers named Faure who sold bikes (made by them or
bought from the big makers) under their name.
--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/
That is, I'd bet $$ to Bayliss Donuts, a cyclometer, perhaps driven off the belt you can vaguely see (larger diameter spool at hub end). Size and shape look a lot like the Huret, but clearly not the Bowden cable drive ("speedometer cable" I'm used to.
wouldn't bet very many donuts, though...
Harvey wins! Also in the issue, Jan does say "Rumor has it that A. Faure was a 'horloger,' a clock maker." Also, " There were other Faures who made bikes, but none this elaborate."
Roy "charter subscriber" Drinkwater