Vintage Bicycle Advertisements; good, bad. ugly...

[Mike Sales]

too much absinthe, I reckon...?

A touch of Beardsley I should say.

[JohnW]

remember the 'Cycles Ouragan' poster from before? This one has a lady and bike in an almost identical posture, so someone's had the tracing paper out...?

Nah - there are a lot of very close similarities Brucey, but a lot of differences. Probably the same artist and at the same time, but 'variations on a theme'.................and rather less robustly built.

[JohnW]

another diaphanously dressed young lady pedalling her wares (groan). The thing is, she is somewhat, er, robustly built, unlike the bike, which looks engineered to have something approximating a hinge in the middle of the frame. Forget the lightning bolts, it looks to me as if the first bump (*) will see a structural failure of some kind, either in the bike..... or perhaps the garments....



fat tyres were probably required on the roads of the time; they may have been 650Cs.

(*) or bad attack of wind perhaps; 'ouragan' is French for 'hurricane'....

See?

[JakobW]

Looking at the text running up the left-hand bottom side of both posters it's the same printer (and therefore possibly the same artist - I presume these were litho printed) for both? Certainly the facial features are very similar.

[JohnW]

Looking at the text running up the left-hand bottom side of both posters it's the same printer (and therefore possibly the same artist - I presume these were litho printed) for both? Certainly the facial features are very similar.

Oh yes - certainly. The right arm, and the direction of the rider's gaze are significant differences.

[Brucey]

slightly baffled by this one; reminds me a bit of 'futurama'. If the heads were in glass jars you'd be right there....

[Brucey]

should have said

"if I cheat however, it lasts for ever"

[Brucey]

the arms would be in a slightly different position, and the bike would be different in detail, but the rider would be about the same shape on a modern bike; a flat back like that is usually pretty quick

[Brucey]

"does my bum look big in this?"

[Brucey]

"over seventy models in full colour"

Disappointingly, they meant the bicycles.

[JohnW]

"does my bum look big in this?"

We don't know - she's looking the wrong way!

[Brucey]

yes this gets to the nub of it; "buy our products because they will make you happy". That's bound to work in a country in which 'happiness' is an inalienable right, enshrined in the constitution.... but I don't think the founding fathers had an overweight, overstyled, chrome plated thing in mind, did they?

[JohnW]

"over seventy models in full colour"

Disappointingly, they meant the bicycles.

The rider is stood on tip- toe, and look where the top tube is. That frame is far too big for her!

[Brucey]

why bother with a full complement of teeth on your one and only sprocket....?

cheers

[Brucey]

obviously lacking in imagination, that girl; if she was really keen she'd want a bike her size, wouldn't she?