Book on French Cycle Industry?

[julian]

Apart from Frank Berto's The Dancing Chain is there another English language book that covers the French Cycle Industry?

I'm looking for more general information on France's bicycle and component makers (Berto covers the products/technical info but has little detail on locations/individual company history).

Cheers

[colin54]

There's a link here on the excellent French site, Tonton Velo, from a quick glance it looks like a yearly gazette for the trade, 1898-1971
( in French of course).You may find more in the same section of the site. The site itself translate into english if you require.
https://fr.calameo.com/books/000544113cc4e54f37a0b
Second link is the home page.
https://forum.tontonvelo.com/index.php

[colin54]

There's also this ; 'The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bikes' By Jan Heine, out of print now but possibly still available from the US or elsewhere - plenty on Amazon for instance, (or could be read on-line by the look of it ).



https://www.renehersecycles.com/golden- ... -of-print/

[julian]

Thanks - I had a look at Jan Heine's book on Amazon: from the reviews it seems to mostly about photos and details of French touring bicycles only.

[colin54]

Have you seen this on the Classic Rendezvous site ?
Articles on French bicycle and component makers, (click on grey box for the individual component maker's list & articles).
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/France/France.html

[julian]

Cheers, I had a read of a couple of those.

I'm more of a bookworm on this topic: I find it easier to digest at leisure / refer back to in printed form. I've got my eye on the Daniel Rebour book (same publisher as the Dancing Chain) - his illustrations of bike stuff are superb ...

[thirdcrank]

Earlier Rebour thread here.

viewtopic.php?p=1505962#p1505962

[Cyril Haearn]

Slightly OT, Sempe published some charming cycling cartoons/drawings, no need for words. One of his books is 'the cycle shop owner's secret'

[julian]

Do you mean "Raoul Taburin Keeps a Secret" by Sempre - looks like a great book, but currently out of print in english and secondhand copies priced at silly levels....will look out for it though..

[Cyril Haearn]

Yes, I know his secret. Got a collection of Sempes cycling cartoons too

I think it is worth reading the books in French, the cartoons are the main thing