1966, un Salon «sérieux» — Le Cycle, October 1966, by Daniel Rebour

Daniel Rebour’s editorial opens Le Cycle n° 73, October 1966, the Salon issue of the magazine he edited, under the title “1966, un Salon sérieux”. He weighs the trade on the eve of the Paris Salon du Cycle et du Motocycle: fewer stands than in 1964, firms merging, a good market for children’s, folding and sporting bicycles and a hard one for small moped makers. The title, byline, masthead and the note on the cover 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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1966
UN SALON “SERIEUX”
où les problèmes commerciaux seront au premier plan
Mais aussi un Salon technique, où les nouveautés, les progrès de détail et les améliorations sur les modèles déjà cotés affirmeront la volonté commune de toujours aller de l’avant

par Daniel REBOUR

NOTRE COUVERTURE
SACHS expose au SALON DU CYCLE une gamme inégalée de moyeux TORPEDO dont l’un d’eux, le « DUOMATIC » deux vitesses, avec ou sans frein rétro, est représenté sur notre couverture.
Parmi les autres moyeux, citons les « TORPEDO BOY », « TORPEDO KOMET », « TORPEDO » trois vitesses avec ou sans frein rétro.
« Fidèles et sûrs », ce slogan se passe de tout commentaire !

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 73 – 19e ANNEE

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Rebour’s editorial opens the Salon issue by noting that two years have passed since the last Salon du Cycle et du Motocycle in Paris and that nearly the whole trade (builders, manufacturers, accessory makers and importers) is gathered again in the hall of the Foire-Exposition at the Porte de Versailles. In 1964 there were 141 stands; this year there are ten fewer, which he reads as a sign of brands grouping under one management through agreements, mergers or outright absorption, and also of the trade’s real stability. Nearly all of the French two-wheel industry will be at Salon 66, and he argues that firms staying away because orders are plentiful are wrong, citing a faithful regular of the Paris Salons who was absent in 1964 and regretted it; attending is tiring but the one chance to meet customers, suppliers, agents, colleagues and competitors and to judge technical and commercial trends at a glance. He welcomes again the excellent Hall S, opened in 1964, after the icy and drafty premises of earlier years, hopes the restaurant is as good as two years before, and condemns the parking lot (a rutted vacant lot, dusty when dry and a swamp in rain, with a single jammed gate), asking for a second gate and a windshield pass for each exhibitor as in other countries. The trade is no longer what it artificially was in the postwar years but remains satisfactory. For bicycles he sees an interesting market: children’s models sell well, folding and take-apart cycles are a growing business and young customers are reviving sporting machines. Motorized machines fare less well; they now demand great industrial strength and ultra-modern organization, and the small maker of the 1950s who built his moped in a workshop can no longer survive. Investment, better tooling and automation are now essential, the vogue for French goods abroad justifies the technicians’ efforts, and export already takes more than half the output of some firms. He closes convinced that the 1966 Salon will succeed both technically and commercially, as the trade’s own achievement and a fair reward for its industrialists and dealers.]

[The page carries no drawings or photographs. The title block sits in a double-ruled frame, the byline in a ruled box at the head of the center column, the « NOTRE COUVERTURE » note in a box with a wavy border at the foot of that column, and the masthead strip at the foot of the page opens with the LE CYCLE nameplate, a large open C enclosing the word, with a reversed band below it.]

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