FRENCH BICYCLE INDUSTRY

The French bicycle industry and the history of the bicycle are inextricably intertwined. Spanning the last century and a half, the industry has seen two "bike booms" come and go, and continues into the 21st century, albeit in a less dominant position in the market today.
 

Origins

The earliest known forebears of the bicycle were called velocipedes, and included many types of human-powered vehicles. One of these, the scooter-like dandy horse or celerifere of the French Comte de Sivrac, dating to 1790, was long cited as the earliest bicycle. Most bicycle historians now believe that these un-steer able hobby-horses probably never existed, but were made up by Louis Baudry de Saunier, a 19th century French bicycle historian.
 

The 19th century

The most likely originator of the bicycle was the German Baron Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine while collecting taxes from his tenants. He patented his draisine, which was a pushbike powered by the action of the rider's feet pushing against the ground. Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan shares creator's credit with von Drais, for adding a treadle drive mechanism, in 1840, which enabled the rider to lift his feet off the ground while driving the rear wheel.

In the 1860s, the Michaux family, Parisian coach builders, began to develop a new drive mechanism for the bicycle; taking bicycle design in a different direction, they placed 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 use of a crank and pedals remains in dispute. Pierre Lallement, a Michaux mechanic, claimed to have collaborated with Ernest Michaux on the design, while Pierre Michaux - Ernest's father - claimed to have developed the idea after modifying a draisine brought in for repairs. Years later, in 1893, Henry Michaux credited the design as an adaptation of the crank-handles the inventors had seen on a grinding wheel. In any event, Pierre Michaux established La Compagnie Ancienne Maison Michaux et Cie. in 1861. The Michaux factory produced two crank-and-pedal driven velocipedes the first year; the following year, they produced 142 of the machines.

Perhaps owing to the dispute over the invention, in 1865 Lallement emigrated to America, 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 velocipedes, began selling in the United States. Because of their wood and iron construction, these velocipedes earned the sobriquet "Boneshakers." The first boneshaker race was held 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 had been building since the Austro-Prussian War of 1866; by 1870, those tensions erupted into war. With the Franco-Prussian War underway, bicycle production at the Michaux factory was suspended in favor of production to support the war effort. As a result, the next innovations in the development of the bicycle 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 the French market. With the outbreak of the war, Turner arranged instead to sell the velocipedes in England. James Starley, a foreman at Coventry, began to make improvements to the Michaux velocipedes; by 1885, the Starley Rover, a safety bicycle manufactured by Starley's nephew, J. K. Starley, was the first recognizably modern bicycle.

The Golden Age of Bicycles

While the bicycle had already gained popularity among wealthy young men in cosmopolitan cities such as London, New York, and Paris, the advent of Starley's safety bicycle ushered in the "golden age of bicycles." A bicycle craze swept through Europe and North America during the Gay Nineties; suddenly, the bicycle was safe, affordable, and available for transportation and leisure for the average person. Remarkably, although France was swept up in the bicycle craze, bicycle production remained centered in England and the United States. However, the seeds were sown for the rebirth of the French bicycle industry.

In 1881, Paul de Vivie, a young man of twenty-eight, bought his first bicycle, an ordinary. By 1887, de Vivie had 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 first model, the 1889 La Gauloise, was the first bicycle produced in France.

See also: Penny-farthing  ::  Back to: Peugeot History Page