1964, Bonne Année à tous ! — Le Cycle, January 1964, by Daniel Rebour

Daniel Rebour’s New Year editorial for Le Cycle n° 43, January 1964, the magazine he edited: “1964 Bonne Année à tous !”, wishing the cycle industry more stability and the riders of two-wheelers a safety he found forgotten, with his outlook for exports, racing and the roads. The heading, subtitle, byline, the note on the cover and the masthead are transcribed as printed; the editorial’s text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page image carries it in full.

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1964
Bonne Année à tous !
Souhaitons à l’Industrie du Cycle, une plus grande stabilité, et, aux usagers des “deux-roues” une sécurité aujourd’hui bien oubliée !

par Daniel REBOUR

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Daniel Rebour opens the year with LE CYCLE’s good wishes to its friends for the 12 months ahead and thanks the many readers who sent theirs. Looking beyond the greetings, he warns that the cycle industry can no longer be seen as a trade in full expansion: every year has opened gaps in the corporation that outsiders could not foresee, and names that seemed unsinkable have gone down in the commercial storm that shook the great family of the “two-wheelers”. For the firms that remain he still sees solid hope: even if sales of cycles inside France stay below their postwar level, the trade still pays for those who stayed at their posts, and by “cycles” he means bicycles and mopeds (cyclomoteurs) together. For 1964 he expects the makers of parts and accessories to go on refining every product toward a more elegant, safer and better-made article; probable stability in the home market compared with the year before; and a booming export trade, since French quality is valued abroad, where any sporting or luxury machine is expected to carry accessories from French specialists, the Marché Commun (Common Market) should ease exports further and more distant countries are important and loyal buyers of French bicycles and parts. In sport France is at least level with its neighbors and its leading professional riders are ambassadors for the industry, but he asks for revised rules so that young riders need not stay strict amateurs while racing foreign state athletes who are professionals in all but name, and he hopes 1964 will at least see the first stone laid for a palais des Sports with a winter velodrome (vélodrome d’hiver), the only way to give French track riders training and competition on equal terms with their foreign rivals. He notes that a January round table (table ronde) brings together the ministers concerned with representatives of the insurers and of road users, and fears that the motorists’ interests will be poorly served and the two-wheel riders’ worse: they will go on paying prices that are too high although in most cases they are the victims of accidents caused by others. Recalling the last issue’s warning about the constant danger that the ignorance and recklessness of motorists, sheltered in their car bodies, pose to riders on French roads, he calls for clearer rules setting out the duties and rights of every road user, true cycle tracks instead of narrow, badly kept paths given over to pedestrians and parked cars, and safety strips along the roads, and he closes by wishing that safety regained will bring more riders to two wheels, while asking whether that hope is too much.]

NOTRE COUVERTURE
Nombreux furent les agents et vélocistes à soigner la présentation de leurs vitrines à l’occasion des fêtes du nouvel an, Parmi eux, nous avons remarqué la belle exposition de Jacques Souhart, l’actif agent de VELOSOLEX, présentant ses cyclomoteurs au milieu des sapins enneigés.

LE CYCLE
MOTOS-CYCLOMOTEURS-SCOOTERS
KARTING

REVUE MENSUELLE
Rédacteur en chef :
Daniel REBOUR

SIEGE SOCIAL, 7, rue Darboy — PARIS-XI
Tél. : OBE. 27-90
Série mensuelle – NUMERO 43 – 19e ANNEE

[The page carries no drawings or photographs. A double-ruled frame across the top holds the year “1964”, set large so that it breaks the upper rule, the greeting and the three-line subtitle; the running text follows in three columns, with the boxed byline in the middle column and, lower in the same column, the cover note in a box with a wavy border. The Le Cycle masthead strip runs across the foot: the magazine’s logo at left, with the editor and office lines in a ruled frame beside it.]

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