Caminade and Caminargent Image Gallery

Caminade made the Caminargent, an aluminum bicycle of the 1930s, and the handlebars, stems and gear hubs that went with it. This gallery gathers the advertisements, press clippings and catalogs that document the firm, among them the 1936 French catalog and the 1937 English catalog issued by the British concessionaire Hicking. It adds detail photographs of surviving machines.

The advertising shows how much of the Caminade range was not frames. Stems, handlebars and the Rectiligne three-speed hub of 1935 each get their own notices, and the catalogs read as technical documents, with specifications, parts pages and tariffs set beside the photographs.

Advertising and the trade press. Notices from 1913 to 1936 for the frames, the Rectiligne hub, the handlebar and stem ranges and the Caminargent itself, with the press clippings that followed the firm and a poster for Cycles Aluminium by G. Rupalley of Paris.

Newspaper advertisement headed L'extra-légère et rigide P. CAMINADE, with paragraphs describing the bicycle and a Caminade and Durand address

Black and white notice announcing the Rectiligne three-speed racing hub and the six-speed cyclotourisme hub, with the Caminade address at Bois-Colombes

Large notice headed CYCLISTES, with small drawings of a pedal and a shoe and a long description of a racing bicycle offered for 1914

Poster headed CAMINADE, La fabrication préférée des champions, with two gilt medallions of cyclists, a winged woman in red and a line of racing cyclists below

Newspaper advertisement headed Antonin Magne, Le vainqueur du Tour de France 1934, on a France-Sport bicycle with Wolber tires and a Caminargent handlebar

Line drawing of a men's bicycle under the heading Vélos Duralumin, captioned Bicyclette de route

Wide banner advertisement dated 1936 with a drawing of a child beside a bicycle and the headline La Caminargent in bold type

The 1936 Caminargent catalog. The French catalog page by page: the cover, the parts page, the three models for racing, the promenade and touring, the characteristics, the tariff and the conditions of sale.

Black catalog cover with CAMINARGENT in huge white capitals over a drawing of a bicycle

Black catalog page headed Pièces détachées showing white outlines of stems, lugs, brake parts and cranks

The 1937 Hicking catalog. The English catalog from the British house that sold the Caminargent, with its cover, its page on the characteristics of the metal, the Bordeaux-Paris and touring models with prices in pounds and a page of detail photographs.

Catalog cover headed Catalogue from the house of Hicking, with CAMINARGENT in large white capitals above a bicycle and the line The Rolls Royce of Bicycles

Catalog page of two bicycles labeled Bordeaux-Paris and track models, with specification text and prices in pounds

A Caminargent of 1934. Nine photographs of a surviving road bicycle: the engraved head lug, the pierced hubs and brass levers, two aluminum bottles and a leather saddle.

Close view of the head tube junction with a brake caliper and cable on a silver aluminum frame

Close view of an engraved aluminum head lug with the letters CAMINARGENT and a brass badge

Two small aluminum water bottles with wooden stoppers clipped to the handlebar above a cable and brake lever

Yoyo le Clown’s Caminargent. A step-through machine and six detail photographs, taken in grass, of the stem, the brake, the hub and the engraved lug.

Silver step-through bicycle with a small front rack standing on grass

Close view of a stem and handlebar junction on a silver frame in grass

A touring Caminargent. A third surviving bicycle, photographed in a garden with its headlamp and mudguard.

Silver aluminum touring bicycle with drop handlebars, a headlamp and a leather saddle beside green plants — Advertisements, press clippings and catalogs for Caminade and the Caminargent from 1913 to 1937, with close photographs of three surviving aluminum bicycles.

Close view of a stem and handlebar clamp on a silver frame above a blue and white tiled table — Advertisements, press clippings and catalogs for Caminade and the Caminargent from 1913 to 1937, with close photographs of three surviving aluminum bicycles.

Read the full story in Caminade: The Circle of Cycle, which covers Pierre Caminade’s Caminargent bicycles of the 1930s, their aluminum frames, cast lugs and octagonal tubes.