Caminade History: A Timeline of Key Corporate and Product Events

4 minute read

Nearly a century before swoopy modern wonderbikes claimed aluminum frames and quick-disassembly travel bikes as innovations, Pierre Caminade had already built them. Working from a small Parisian atelier, Caminade pursued an obsessive, self-driven programme of aluminum-magnesium frame construction, componentry and marketing under the Caminargent name, producing feather-light machines whose lightness has rarely been matched since, let alone by riders able to service their own bikes as Caminade’s customers reportedly could and did.

Here is a chronological timeline of key corporate and product events at Caminade, spanning from 1896 to 1951, based on the sources used for an accompanying Ebykr article on its history, “Caminade: The Circle of Cycle.”

1896

Early Aluminum Prototype

A prototype aluminum bicycle had reportedly been built by Rupalley as early as this year, well before Pierre Caminade took up the material.

c. 1910

Company Founding

Pierre Caminade opened his first retail bicycle establishment at around the age of 31, drawing his core market from racer boys of the Buffalo Velodrome, and building a reputation working in steel, according to Ken Denny and Joel Metz.

1913

A Pierre Caminade advertisement from this year documents his early steel-era bicycle business.

January 1914

Press Reference

A Caminade reference appeared in l’Echo Sportif de l’Oranie, a weekly sporting and artistic journal.

1918

Historical Context

World War One and the accompanying Great Flu Epidemic devastated the land, youth and economy of Europe, a disruption believed to have influenced Caminade‘s later shift from track racing machines toward more sedate derailleur touring bikes.

1918–1938

Technological Backdrop

In the twenty years spanning these dates, advances in wartime machinery, particularly the airplane, and the rise of mass-production techniques reshaped the metallurgy of the era; it has been suggested these advances later inspired Caminade‘s own explorations into aluminum alloys.

1933

Competitor Milestone

Delage produced a short run of lugged aluminum-alloy bicycles, part of the wave of early aluminum experimentation that preceded Caminade‘s own designs.

1934

Brand Launch

Starting this year, Pierre Caminade used the brand name Caminargent, combining his surname with the French word for silver, referencing the sparkly sheen of the aluminum alloy used in his frames.

September 21, 1934

First Brand Reference

The first known reference to the Caminargent name appeared in a France-Sport bicycle advertisement for a handlebar, published in that day’s issue of l’Aéro, a weekly newspaper devoted to mechanics and engineers of sporting machines.

January 1935

A Caminade Rectiligne advertisement from this month promoted the derailleur’s design.

February 1935

A second Caminade Rectiligne advertisement appeared this month.

By 1936

Product Milestone

Pierre Caminade had designed and built functional bicycles weighing under 6 kilograms, a little over 12 pounds, while enthralled by the new metal Duralumin and sponsored by the Societé du Duralumin, the French trade council for aluminum producers.

1936

Press Launch

Caminade arranged press conferences complete with reporters and photographers to unveil the new bicycle and demonstrate how it could be disassembled with a single wrench.

July 4, 1936

Press Reference

Le Journal Sportif carried a Caminargent reference on this date.

1936

Catalog Publication

A Caminargent catalog from this year advertised the marque’s touring and racing models, describing the frames as requiring neither welding nor brazing and branding them jewels of French industry, including the upright city model called the Dandy.

1936

Press Coverage

An article in Le Cycliste this year noted that owners of 3-speed Caminargents could convert them to 6-speeds with three simple purchased parts, installable without a professional mechanic.

February 3, 1937

Press Reference

A Caminade reference appeared in l’Echo d’Alger, a Republican morning journal, on this date.

February 9, 1937

Press Reference

A second Caminade reference appeared in l’Echo d’Alger on this date.

1937

Catalog Publication

A Caminargent catalog referred to as the Hicking catalog was published this year.

1938

A Caminargent Les Guidons handlebar advertisement dates to this year.

1949

A further Caminargent Les Guidons handlebar advertisement dates to this year.

By 1951

Product Change

According to acclaimed expert Jan Heine, the constant accretion of accessories had bloated early lightweight Caminade bicycles to about 25 pounds by this year, not too bad for a fully-equipped cyclotouring bike, but not spectacular either.

1910–c. 1951

Career Span

Pierre Caminade worked steadily as a bicycle builder across these years, retiring shortly after 1951 at around 72 years of age, after which the marque appears to have faded from public memory.