>On Sep 17, 2006, at 7:32 AM, Jan Heine wrote:
>...and the advertisment's line "APPAREIL ORTHOPEDIQUE AMERICAIN
>SUPER STALTO" seems to reflect the world's preoccupation with all
>things Americain.
>
><http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/aldoross/pd/Hungaria.JPG.html>
Absolutely. Remember, the war was barely over, the U.S. had liberated France, new and good things were coming with the Marshall plan. American cars were big and reliable, and sold for astonishingly little money in the U.S.
The French bike industry worried about the American bike industry, apparently poised to take over the world. Rumors circulated that the Americans were equipped to make 10,000,000 bikes a year. That easily would have supplied the French, German, Dutch and Italian markets combined. And with Americans rumored to be so efficient, state-of-the-art, etc., the bikes probably were going to be better and cheaper than anything European manufacturers had to offer.
So Daniel Rebour went to the trade show (Chicago? New York? I don't recall.). Anyhow, he was surprised when he saw that all these bikes were kid's bikes, and in no way competition for the European makers. He came back and published a page of drawings in Le Cycle (reproduced in VBQ Vol. 3, No. 4), showing bikes with gun holsters and streamlined fuel tanks. One could sense that he was at a loss to explain it all to the French cycling industry types reading Le Cycle (which was a trade magazine, not a consumer one). I am sure the bosses at Peugeot, Motobecane and Follis slept better after reading the article. -- Jan Heine Editor Vintage Bicycle Press c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles 140 Lakeside Ave #C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com