[CR]Re: French bike culture in America

(Example: Framebuilders:Bernard Carré)

Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 10:53:06 -0800
From: "Chuck Schmidt" <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <41EC022F.2040703@erols.com>
Subject: [CR]Re: French bike culture in America

Jan Heine wrote:
> <snip>
> We used to "ignore" the French and Italian machines as well, until some
> people went over there and brought back news from that cycling
> culture... For the Italians, that happened relatively early, while the
> "French phenomen" is more recent, dating from the early 1990s, I'd say.
> I am just the "second generation" in that respect - early proponents of
> French constructeur bikes were Grant Handley and Mike Kone. (Of course,
> French bikes in the U.S. are an older phenomenon than that, but the
> culture never really made it across until recently.)

Jan, can you elaborate?

I thought the French bikes and the *French (bike) culture* made it over to the US in the 50s and 60s, long before the 1990s. The Rene Herse and Alex Singer bikes I first saw in the mid-70s when I started riding as an adult had been brought back from France by wealthy Southern California folks cycle touring in France in the 50s and 60s.

Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California

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