Kurt,
So many people accuse the French of chauvinism that it's hard to know when it's a joke. I remember somebody saying on the CR list years ago how it was amazing that the French builders used Maxi-Car hubs and Simplex derailleurs, just because they were French, rather than using the better Campagnolo parts.
Sometimes, I wish we had an "Academie Americaine" who would fine childrens' book publishers who write "Every day, he would go to town" instead of "Every day, he went to town." How are my children supposed to learn proper English when even children's book editors don't seem to care?
Best,
Jan
At 11:50 AM -0800 11/24/09, Kurt Sperry wrote:
>A huge subset of the French people obviously love English and American
>language and culture (See how far you can walk in Paris without seeing
>a McDonalds or store with an English name), I was just having some fun
>about the Academie Francaise and their sticks up their single
>buttedness. Joking comments sound literal in text, sometimes I forget.
>
>Probably the combination of the sheer size of the French market for
>Reynolds and the metric sizing of the French tubesets best explains
>the special decals.
>
>Kurt Sperry
>Bellingham, Washington
>USA
>
>2009/11/24 Jan Heine <heine94@earthlink.net>:
>>> Regarding French being the only exception to English Reynolds decals:
>>>
>>> There was more to French 531 tubing than just the language of the
>>> decals. I believe I am correct in saying the tubing diameter was purely
>>> metric, as opposed to an English diameter expressed as a metric number,
>>> so it was a different product.
>>
>> Yes, French Reynolds tubing came in metric diameters. Also, the French
>> Reynolds distributor had a few special products made, such as the superlight
>> 531 "3/10 mm" tubing. The same gauges later were used for 753, which is why
>> the first 753 Raleighs used metric tubing. Then there was the low-end
>> "Reynolds Speedy" tubing. Both the 531 3/10 mm and the Speedy were available
>> only in France.
>>
>> According to the Taylor brothers (see the interview in Bicycle Quarterly's
>> Summer 09 issue), Reynolds tandem tubing also was available only in metric
>> sizes during the 1950s, especially oversize fork blades. So Jack Taylor used
>> French fork crowns with metric Reynolds 531 blades, and when they had more
>> crowns made, they continued with the metric dimensions. (Most British makers
>> of tandems used fork blades intended for single bikes.)
>>
>> Beyond that, was there even another large export market for Reynolds tubing
>> that did not speak English? By large, I mean 100,000+ tubesets a year, not a
>> few hundred tubesets for companies like Cinelli in Italy or Schauff in
>> Germany? I can't think of any.
>>
>>>
>>> Also, as listmember Bazin pointed out, the French seemed to show a fair
>>> degree of affinity for English-sounding names.
>>
>> Ernest Csuka of Cycles Alex Singer once told me: "An American will buy
>> American products unless none are available. A French cyclist will buy a
>> foreign product in preference to a French one, unless there aren't any."
>>
>> He may be overstating things, but an English-sounding name appears to have
>> been the marketing strategy of many French companies. And so you have lots
>> of French riding "Luhk" (Look) and "Teem" (Time) bikes made by or for French
>> companies. It took me a while to figure out what "Team" bikes were, until I
>> realized that they were talking about "Time"!
>>
>> Jan Heine
>> Editor
>> Bicycle Quarterly
>> 2116 Western Ave.
>> Seattle WA 98121
>> http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com
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