For historical perspective, on June 30,1899 Charles Murphy of Brooklyn,NY became the then world's fastest cyclist by riding for 57 4/5 seconds behind a Long Island Railroad steam engine and achieving a speed of 62.28 mph. It nearly cost him his life because of the severe buffetting behind the engine. Art Link,San Antonio,TX
Michael Butler <pariscycles@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: A friend of mine was asking questions about the following, thought this might be of interest so have enclosed. Al, Jose Meiffret was French not Belgium. He was 46 years old when he set the 126mph record. I think it was in 1951 he had crashed shortly before in another attempt when doing over a 100mph! The other great pre-war ride was when Leon Vanderstuft and he was a Belgium did 76.25mph. behind a motorcycle at Montlhery. Wonder if the Mavic's are named after this? His knuckles were cracked and pouring with blood caused by the vibration and the tussle to keep the bike stable. There were loads of deaths both to riders and spectators when they raced behind the big motors especially early on. Germany was really big on motor pace and Continental tyres were major sponsors. Because of all the deaths they fitted the pacing machines with the big rollers to cut down on the pace and speed. Leon Vanderstuft was also the centre of high drama in the 1960 Worlds, think these were in Leipzig in the old DDR. Anyway he was a pacer this time when his motorbike crashed his leather pacing suit got covered in petrol from a fractured tank, this immediately burst into flames turning him into a human torch, he was lucky the leathers saved him from serious injury. In the early days BSA made the huge chainrings for pace bikes, later TA, in the Ron Kitching catalogue you could buy up to 60T any bigger and you paid so much a tooth, you could still get these made in the 70's. Finally I think the "Bike Wrecker" must be Felician Vervaecke. Why I don't know he was no mean rider: 1934 1 stage, Giro d'Italia 1935 KoM, Tour de France 1936 1 stage, Tour de France 1937 KoM, Tour de France 1 stage, Tour de France 1938 4 stages, Tour de France Was Julian his brother? Take care and be lucky Mick. PS I am going to put those campag hubs on CR to see if anyone can identify them.
Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.