Daniel Rebour; a cyclist's eye view

[foxyrider]

i have actually seen someone with a 'quad' chainset set up but i think it was Stronglight rather than TA, the smallest ring was bolted to the arms of the 3rd ring if i recall.

[Brucey]

at one time the best brakes you could get, and still not bad today, provided they are set up correctly.

[Brucey]

1948 Rene Herse; low trail, super-long mudflap!

Rebour developed a 'pre-broken' version of the Ideale leather saddle which was marketed by Ideale with Rebour's signature embossed into the leather.

[Brucey]

adjustable chain tension was thought a useful feature for some years.

[Brucey]

it is (unusually) not clear what model this is from the drawing, but this looks like the first version of the Nuovo Record gear; in the first year it had a few detailed differences which included 9T (cf later 10T) pulleys, and the 9T pulleys had taller teeth than the later 10T versions.



Huret Allvit first version



works better than it looked....

[JakobW]

when three chainrings ain't enough;

More betterer! I vaguely recall Bicycle Quarterly using this image for an April Fool's post (or did they Photoshop it to a quintuple-ring crank?).

[Brucey]

More betterer! I vaguely recall Bicycle Quarterly using this image for an April Fool's post (or did they Photoshop it to a quintuple-ring crank?).

BQ certainly did a spoof photo of a quin chainring as you say but I don't know whether the drawing is a part of that spoof or not. There have been real bikes made with four chainrings, but they were (IIRC) mostly of the cheap and cheerful variety.

[edit; the drawing was used in the spoof here https://www.renehersecycles.com/compass-introduces-quintuple-cranks/ but the Rebour dwg and the bike it was of were only showpieces but were real; see comments in link above.]

[HeikoS69]

I thought I'd do a little publicity...

Last year I digitized most of the bicycle related Rebour drawings from the French magazine „Le Cycle“ 1945 - 1974 and published the scans on Flickr with kind permission of Martine Rebour, sole living heir of Daniel Rebour.

French captions and articles were transcribed and translated and can be found below the scans on Flickr.

Short Flickr manual:
Wait until the page has completely loaded. Click on the arrow on the right side of your screen to browse through the scans.

First scan:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... otostream/

First 100 files from Nov. 1945 until Dec. 1947
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 9190382423

Second 100 files from Dec. 1947 until July 1949
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 2423/page2

Further 100 files, July 1949 - Aug. 1950
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page3/

100 files, Aug. 1950 - Sept. 1951
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page4/

100 files, Sept. 1951 - Oct. 1952
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page5/

100 files, Oct. 1952 - May 1954
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page6/

100 files, May 1954 - July 1956
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page7/

100 files, July 1956 - Aug. 1958
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page8/

100 files, Aug. 1958 - July 1960
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page9/

100 files, July 1960 - Jan. 1962
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 23/page10/

100 files, Jan. 1962 - May 1964
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 23/page11/

100 files, June 1964 - Mar. 1968
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 423/page12

100 files, June 1968 - Feb. 1971
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 23/page13/

100 files, Feb. 1971 - Aug. 1973
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 23/page14/

last 38 files Aug. 1973 -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 23/page15/


Major part of this project is a pdf-file. It has all texts and translations aggregated, with direct weblinks to the corresponding scans. It is (of course) searchable (brandnames!) and therefore indispensible if you look for specific content.

You can find that file here, at the bottom of the forumpost:
https://www.rennrad-news.de/forum/threa ... st-4633286

„Le Cycle“ is the main source for bicycle related Rebour drawings.
He was chief editor for that magazine. His drawings first appeared in that magazine, except from catalogue or other sorts of advertising drawings. There were 488 editions of „Le Cycle“ from 1945 to 1974.

All René Herse catalogues:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/41420640@ ... 2640884851

[iandusud]

Thank you so much for sharing that. It's going to take me ages to go through that lot but it's wonderful. Fortunately I'm fluent in French so can enjoy the text as well.

I've worked my way through 1945 and some of 1946 and so far I've spotted the following: Telescopic front fork. rear suspension, front stem with springing (I had a Girvin Flexstem when they came out and others are doing them again), hydraulic braking, rear suspension, an "e-bike", a gearbox built into the bottom bracket, splined bottom bracket axle, press fit bottom bracket bearings. Just some of the things that we might consider new ideas. I wonder sometimes if manufacturers scour these old magazines to see what "new" idea they can come up with!

[thirdcrank]

Great stuff! I've not had time to follow the links but as I hinted earlier in the thread, this material brings my youth straight back. Digitising may preserve it indefinitely and that's wonderful.

[HeikoS69]

I thought I'd do a little more advertising.

The next issue of Heine's Bicycle Magazine will feature the first of two parts of my article on Daniel Rebour, a summary of all findings of previous articles by other authors and my own research.
It's been two decades since the last article on this topic...
https://www.renehersecycles.com/winter- ... quarterly/

[steve.y.griffith]

Great piece of research I am lucky enough to own this drawing of the TA adaptor (allows fitting of six arm 152pcd rings)not sure of age but they came out in the 50s

[jimlews]

Rebour thread here
https://www.rennrad-news.de/forum/threa ... ad.147478/

when three chainrings ain't enough;




cheers

IMHO The quad set-up illustrated doesn't really address the reason for having four chainwheels; namely to achieve really low gearing.
The Rebour drawing shows the inner C/W is still mounted on the standard six bolts to the outer C/W. Thus doesn't provide a gear any lower than the standard 26t TA set up. (Theoretically 25t)
If the inner C/W had used the five bolt holes of the R/H crank a chainwheel of 17t becomes a possibility. That is the route taken by several DIY tinkerers. They would typically drill a suitable sprocket to fit and employ a tandem length axle.

[Brucey]

IIRC the 'quad' dwg was initially a spoof, later made real. Oddly enough (at a time when 1x gearing is gaining popularity hand over fist) I think the whole subject of multiple chainrings is long overdue a rethink. Chainrings are still using a pitch of about 8mm, despite cassettes being about half this. This is purely to allow cross-chaining on the smaller chainrings by complete numpties. Such cross-chaining is of course, usually pointless, given that almost invariably nigh-on identical gear ratios are available (complete with better efficiency) via the big ring instead. It ought to be fairly straightforward to program Di2 systems to avoid such combinations, and it should not be beyond the wit of man to devise a purely mechanical 'excluder' either. If such methods are deemed sound there is no real reason why chainrings could not be much closer together. This would allow a single chainring to be replaced with an 'emergency double' and a similar triple could go into the space normally occupied by a double etc.