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The French bicycle industry and the history of the bicycle are intertwined. Spanning the last century and a half, the industry has seen two booms, and continues into the 21st century, albeit less dominant today.
To most the invention of the bicycle was by the German Baron Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine while collecting taxes from his tenants. He patented his "draisine" (or "draisienne"), a "pushbike" powered by the action of the rider's feet pushing against the ground.
Reports of early forebears of the bicycle were velocipedes , and included many human-powered vehicles. One, the scooter-like dandy horse or celerifere of the French Comte de Sivrac, dating to 1790, was long cited as the earliest bicycle, however, most historians now believe these unsteerable hobby-horses probably never existed, but were made up by Louis Baudry de Saunier, a 19th-century French bicycle historian.
In the 1860s, the Michaux family, Parisian coach builders, developed a new drive mechanism, placing pedals and cranks on an enlarged wooden front wheel with iron tires, which was mounted on a heavy steel frame. The credit for their innovative crank and pedals remains in dispute. Pierre Lallement, a Michaux mechanic, claimed to have collaborated with Ernest Michaux, while Henry Michaux told in March 1893 in the newspaper L'Éclair how his brother Ernest, together with their father Pierre have developed the idea in 1861 after modifying a draisine brought for repairs. The design was an adaptation of the crank-handles the two inventors had seen on a grinding wheel. In any event, Pierre Michaux's factory started producing crank-and-pedal driven velocipedes : two the first year, 142 the following year.
Perhaps owing to dispute over the invention, in 1865 Lallement emigrated to The United States, where, with the financial backing of James Carroll of Ansonia, Connecticut, he recorded the first U.S. patent on a bicycle, in 1866. Meanwhile, by 1865, the Michaux family was manufacturing 400 velocipedes annually; their bicycles were on display at the first international bicycle exhibition in 1867, and by 1869, the Michaux factory, with a daily production of 200, began selling in the United States. Their wood and iron construction earned these velocipedes the sobriquet Boneshakers. The first boneshaker race was in 1868, in Paris' Parc de Saint Cloud; the winner was James Moore, a friend of the Michaux family. Moore also won the 123 km Paris–Rouen race in 1869, finishing in 10 hours and 40 minutes.
However, tensions between France and Prussia building since the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 erupted into the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and production of bicycles at Michaux was suspended to support the war effort. As a result, the next innovations occurred in Great Britain. Prior to the Franco-Prussian war, the Michaux family had reached an agreement with Rowley B. Turner of the Coventry Sewing Machine Company to manufacture 400 Michaux velocipedes to be sold in France. With the war, Turner arranged instead to sell them in England. James Starley, a foreman at Coventry, began to make improvements and in 1885, the Starley Rover, a "safety bicycle" manufactured by Starley's nephew, John Kemp Starley, was the first recognisably modern bicycle.
The Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede, developed by 1867 and issued a US patent in 1872, is commonly known as the first ever motorcycle. It is plain to see that it derives from The Michaux muscle-powered velocipede.
While the bicycle was popular among wealthy young men in cities such as London, New York City, and Paris, Starley's safety bicycle ushered in the "golden age of bicycles." A bicycle craze swept Europe and North America during the Gay Nineties; suddenly, the bicycle was safe, affordable, and available for transport and leisure for the ordinary person. Although France was swept up in the craze, production remained centered in England and the United States. However, the seeds were sown for the rebirth of the French industry.
In 1876 Clément Cycles was started by its eponym, Adolphe Clément-Bayard. Also founded in 1876 was the Société Parisienne. [1]
In 1881, Paul de Vivie, a man of twenty-eight, bought his first bicycle, an ordinary. By 1887, de Vivie decided to devote his attention to his avocation; he sold his business, and moved to Saint-Étienne, where he opened a bicycle shop and started a magazine, Le Cycliste. Velocio, as de Vivie was known, began to import bicycles from Coventry; within two years, however, he had begun to produce his own bicycles. His 1889 La Gauloise was the first bicycle produced in France.
In 1882 Cycles Peugeot was born, the fruit of Armand Peugeot and his brothers, who worked for the family firm then called Peugeot Frères Aînés (PFA). PFA exhibited a steam-powered tricycle at the 1889 World Fair in Paris. By 1892 the company was called Les Fils de Peugeot Frères, but friction developed between the brothers and in 1896 Armand created Société Anonyme des Automobiles Peugeot which would go on to become the largest car manufacturer in France, producing 10,000 cars per year by the dawn of the First World War.
The Hurtu company was founded in 1880 as Hurtu, Hautin et Diligeon as a maker of sewing machines and soon added machine tools and bicycles to their range. The Hurtu name was continued by Diligeon and company and successfully pioneered French automobiles from 1896. [2]
Charles Terrot and Wilhelm Stücklen had founded a machinery factory in Cannstatt in 1862, and Terrot added a branch factory in Dijon in 1887. In 1890 the Dijon factory added bicycles to its products. [3] The same year, the Manufacture d'Articles Vélocipediques Idoux et Chanel (MAVIC), started by Charles Idoux and Lucien Chanel, was formed for the manufacture and the sale of spare parts for bicycles. [4]
In 1889, two brothers, Édouard Michelin (1859–1940) and André Michelin (1853–1931), ran a farm implement business in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tyre needed repair turned up at the factory. The tyre was glued to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred metres, the tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre, and he and his brother worked on creating their own version, one that did not need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was incorporated on 28 May 1889. In 1891 Michelin took out its first patent for a removable pneumatic tyre which was used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long-distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris–Brest–Paris.[ citation needed ]
In 1891 Cycles Gladiator was found by Alexandre Darracq and Paul Aucoq. [2] [5] In 1896 Adolphe Clément, holder of the extremely profitable manufacturing rights for Dunlop tyres in France, joined with a syndicate led by Dunlop Rubber's founder Harvey Du Cros to buy out Gladiator. The merger formed a major bicycle manufacturing conglomerate: Clément, Gladiator & Humber & Co Limited. [2] The range of cycles was expanded with tricycles, quadricycles, and in 1902 a motorised bicycle, then cars and motorcycles. [6]
French bicycle manufacturers have included:
French bicycle component manufacturers have included:
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A bicycle rider is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle. It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds, owing to it travelling a large distance for every rotation of the wheel. These bicycles had solid rubber tires and as a consequence the only shock absorption was in the saddle.
James Moore was an English bicycle racer. He is popularly regarded as the winner of the first official cycle race in the world in 1868 at St-Cloud, Paris, although this claim seems to be erroneous. In 1869 he won the world's first road race Paris–Rouen sponsored by Le Vélocipède Illustré and the Olivier brothers' Michaux Bicycle Company. Moore covered the 113 km (70 mi) in 10 hours and 25 minutes. He was one of the first stars of cycle racing, dominating competition for many years.
A velocipede is a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle.
Vehicles that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider date back to the early 19th century. The first means of transport making use of two wheels arranged consecutively, and thus the archetype of the bicycle, was the German draisine dating back to 1817. The term bicycle was coined in France in the 1860s, and the descriptive title "penny farthing", used to describe an "ordinary bicycle", is a 19th-century term.
A draisine is a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure.
Gitane is a French manufacturer of bicycles based in Machecoul, France; the name "Gitane" means gypsy woman. The brand was synonymous with French bicycle racing from the 1960s through the mid-1980s, sponsoring riders such as Jacques Anquetil (1963–1965), Lucien Van Impe (1974–1976), Bernard Hinault (1975–1983), Laurent Fignon (1982–1988), and Greg LeMond (1981–1984). It is owned by Grimaldi Industri AB.
Pierre Lallement is considered by some to be the inventor of the pedal bicycle.
Pierre Michaux was a blacksmith who furnished parts for the carriage trade in Paris during the 1850s and 1860s. He may have become the inventor of the bicycle when he added pedals to a draisine to form the Michaudine velocipede, the forerunner of the modern bicycle. However, historic sources reveal other possible claimants, such as his son Ernest Michaux and Pierre Lallement.
The Olivier brothers, Aimé, René, and Marius, were among the first people responsible for recognizing the commercial potential of the bicycle.
The bike boom or bicycle craze is any of several specific historic periods marked by increased bicycle enthusiasm, popularity, and sales.
The history of the motorcycle begins in the second half of the 19th century. Motorcycles are descended from the "safety bicycle," a bicycle with front and rear wheels of the same size and a pedal crank mechanism to drive the rear wheel. Despite some early landmarks in its development, the motorcycle lacks a rigid pedigree that can be traced back to a single idea or machine. Instead, the idea seems to have occurred to numerous engineers and inventors around Europe at around the same time.
Humber was an English brand of bicycles and tricycles. Thomas Humber made himself a velocipede in 1868. From that time he built a substantial business in manufacturing tricycles and bicycles while continuously improving their design and construction. His products were so well-made and well-designed they were known as "the aristocrat among bicycles".
Gustave Adolphe Clément, known from 1909 Clément-Bayard, was a French entrepreneur. Despite being orphaned, he became a blacksmith and a Compagnon du Tour de France. He later ventured into racing and manufacturing bicycles, pneumatic tyres, motorcycles, automobiles, aeroplanes and airships.
Thomas Humber was an English engineer and cycle manufacturer who developed and patented a safety bicycle (1884) with a diamond-shaped frame and wheels of similar size. It became a pattern for subsequent machines. Humber made many other improvements to bicycles. About 1868 he founded Humber Cycles, the bicycle manufacturing business at Beeston, Nottinghamshire later owned by Humber & Co Limited.
Cycles Peugeot, founded in 1882, is a manufacturer of bicycles based in Sochaux, France and currently a part of Cycleurope, a subsidiary of Sweden-based firm Grimaldi Industri.
Clément Cycles, La Société des Vélocipédes Clément, Clément & Cie was a French bicycle manufacturer that was founded by the industrial entrepreneur Adolphe Clément. From its beginnings as a bicycle repair shop in Bordeaux, through its establishment as a bicycle shop and workshop in Paris to its mass manufacture of a wide range of bicycles from the purpose built, state of the art factory at Levallois-Perret, Paris, the brand always combined advertising and marketing flair with quality products.
Société Parisienne was a French manufacturer of velocipedes, bicycles and tricycles from 1876. They began limited automobile construction in 1894 and regular light car (voiturette) construction in 1898 or 1899, and they ceased operation in 1903. The vehicles, variously known as Parisienne, Victoria Combination, Eureka, l'Eclair, Duc-Spider and Duc-Tonneau, were manufactured by Société Parisienne E. Couturier et Cie of Paris.
Aimé Olivier de Sanderval, comte de Sanderval, was a French adventurer, explorer of West Africa, entrepreneur and author.
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