At 7:30 PM +0000 1/5/10, Neil Foddering wrote:
>as has been well-documented, most clubmen could afford only one
>machine, which served for commuting related to work, shops and
>social life, club riding, touring and racing, and therefore, it
>could not be limited in its purpose by in-built custom items.
Exactly my point. In Britain, the same bike had to morph into many shapes. Depending on the occasion, you added and removed parts.
In France, most riders could afford only one bike, just like in Britain. However, instead of getting one with removable parts, they got a bike that could do it all without modifications. Roger Baumann used the same bike to win Paris-Brest-Paris 1956 and for a tour to the Polar Circle with friends... without any substantial changes to the bike itself.
This is comparable to the difference between a 1950s British sports car, where you could quickly remove the windscreen and install aero screen, perhaps even remove the fenders, when you went racing, and the Italian Gran Turismo car, which could be driven on a long trip across Europe, and then raced the next weekend, all without changing anything except the tire pressure.
Sorry for the car analogy, but compare a Fraser Nash to a Lancia Aurelia, and you get the idea. Of course, the Lancia probably cost twice as much... just like the Herse cost twice the amount of a Hetchins, I suspect.
I believe that IF in Italy, cycling and cycle sport had been an activity of the well-off and middle classes like it was in France, we would have seen similar constructeur bikes there. Unfortunately, the people who designed and built Lancias, Cisitalias and Maseratis were not involved in cycling. In France, people like Ettore Bugatti, Louis Delage and other car people took an active interest in cycling, and interacted with the constructeurs, suggesting technical solutions, etc. Louis Delage wrote in his memoirs that his Camille Daudon bicycle was the most wonderful piece of mechanical equipment he had seen. And this from a guy whose V-12 racing cars in the 1920s were nothing short of revolutionary. When Ettore Bugatti wanted to re-establish his foothold after the war, he designed a miniature race-car engine to power bicycles. Not because he wanted to sell that engine - it would have been way too expensive for a bicycle - but because it could serve as a portable showcase of what he could do.
I don't recall hearing about the Bentley Boys taking much interest in cycling in Britain, either... and when Aston-Martin came close to bankruptcy, they didn't pin their hopes on a bicycle engine! People would have laughed.
France caught up to the rest of the industrialized world in the mid-1950s, when cycling became an activity of the poor. Most constructeurs closed their doors. A few survived on a reduced level, but I can't think of a single new constructeur who opened shop between 1955 and 1970.
The "Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles" in France was due to a number of factors not present elsewhere. It was pretty unique and unfortunately, short-lived, lasting starting around 1935, going through the war, taking off in 1945, and petering out by 1955. For the reasons why it developed this way, I can think of a few _potential_ reasons:
- Inspirational people, especially Velocio and the Groupe Montagnard Parisien, focused on independent riding and touring, and not on racing. - A larger middle class existed early, who had money to buy very nice bicycles. Italy was lacking that middle class during the 1930s and 1940s. - During the German occupation, gasoline was unavailable, rendering cars were useless. A constructeur bike was available and useful, so it replaced a car as a status symbol. This may have carried over after the war. - Affordable cars came relatively late in France. Britain had its Austin 7, Italy the Fiat Topolino, Germany the Volkswagen (Beetle), all either available or announced during the 1930s to get people dreaming about cars. In France, it wasn't until the late 1940s that affordable cars, like the Renault 4CV and the Citroen 2CV became available.
Again, this is not to say that wonderful bicycles weren't made elsewhere, but if you are looking for the equivalent of a Gran Turismo car in bicycles, the French constructeurs are it... If you want a good racing bike, there are many more choices... just like in cars, great racing cars were made in Italy, Germany, Britain and, to a lesser degree, France.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
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