Nos Échos — L’Officiel du cycle, 3 June 1950, the Lille Fair, Huret’s Wins and the Circuit des 6 Provinces

From L’Officiel du cycle, 3 June 1950, page 4: the news column: the cycle section at the Lille fair, Huret’s wins, Argentine and Swiss markets, French cycle output in 1949 and the Circuit des 6 Provinces, with the engagement notice of a Helyett director. The title, headings, captions and lists are transcribed as printed; the text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page images carry it in full. It belongs to the trade columns that the weekly addressed to the French cycle dealers, the vélocistes.

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Nos Echos

Le Cycle à la Foire de Lille

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. From 10 to 25 June, at the Foire Commerciale et Internationale de Lille, a very large section devoted to the bicycle and the motorcycle will bring together the leading French marques of every category in the northern capital.]

Deux petits géants

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. At Lille, in the recent 27th « Premier Pas Dunlop », two young riders known to the paper did better than honorably: the son of Charles Dufresne, Vice-Président of the « Syndicat Général », finished 20th, while Daniel Col, on the staff of « l’Officiel du Cycle et de la Moto », got back into the race after a terrible fall that cost him more than 30 places and finished 50th. About 100 young hopefuls started.]

Huret moissonne…

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Huret, the Nanterre maker whose derailleur is famous, is credited with a truly exceptional record, listed as follows.]

1o Championnat de France de Cyclo-Cross (Jodet). — 2o Premier Élan parisien (Barbotin). — 3o Critérium National (Barbotin). — 4o Paris-Tours (Mahé). — 5o Circuit du Morbihan (Tacca). — 6o Grand Prix du Pneumatique (Molineris). — 7o Paris-Rouen (Huraux). — 8o Paris-Évreux (Viola). — 9o Grand Prix de Pleurtuit (Bobet). — 10o Circuit d’Aïn-Temouchent (Bobet). — 11o Grand Prix d’Alger (Bobet)… Et ce n’est qu’un début de saison.

Débouchés argentins…

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Argentina’s annual need for bicycles over the next three years is estimated at 200.000 units, after which normal demand should be about 120.000 units a year. Great Britain is the largest supplier, and the note is offered as a hint to French constructeurs.]

…et débouchés suisses

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. M. Depret-Bixio, Conseiller Commercial at the French Embassy in Bern, has just written a very interesting report on the market for bicycle spare parts in Switzerland, which may be consulted at the library of the Chambre de Commerce de Paris, 16, rue Chateaubriand.]

Chez Motobécane

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. M. de Grenier de Latour, the active Président of the « Chambre Syndicale Nationale du Motocycle », has just taken over the management of the Établissements Motobécane, the large firm of Pantin, and « L’Officiel du Cycle et de la Moto » congratulates him.]

Scooter-Sport

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The scooter, the “short-legged” motorcycle whose name the paper has put to a referendum, keeps making news: a new specialty of cycle sport, road racing behind a scooter, was inaugurated during the Rome-Naples-Rome event contested by all the Italian and European stars, and the paper’s colleague L’Equipe recently staged a demonstration of it in the streets of Paris.]

Production de cycles en 49

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Although industrial statistics in this field are said to be terribly mysterious, French bicycle production in 1949 is estimated at one and a half million units. Three million could reportedly be reached easily if export opportunities opened, but the industry lacks commercial agreements favorable to expansion, and its prices, although only at coefficient 13 against prewar, can compete only with difficulty against what the paper calls the real English dumping now under way.]

La soudure à froid ?

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The English are said to have just put into use a new process for welding malleable metals that needs only pressure and no heat. Such a process would be a considerable advance, of undeniable value wherever a weld is needed in a place where the normal heat of welding cannot be used.]

Il fallait commencer par là

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. As an example of the many telephone inquiries the paper receives each day, a correspondent asked for the regulation dimensions of motorcycle registration plates. The paper gave him every useful detail at once, and in thanking it he said he had called on the advice of one of its readers, a Garagiste-Motoriste, and that the paper was the 30th body he had asked since the morning but the only one able to satisfy him.]

Circuit des 6 Provinces

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The « Circuit des 6 Provinces », which ended in triumph with the victory of A. Rolland, is called certainly the hardest race in cycling after the Tour de France: for its 7 stages totaling 1.680 km. with difficult climbs, for its conditions, which forbid any direct help from a teammate to a rider with a mechanical breakdown, and for its average speeds of 39 to 40 km./h. The selection was very severe, since of 96 starters only 37 finished. The paper is glad to record the victory of Cycles Rhonson, with Antonin Rolland, and of Cycles Terrot, which won 3 stages of 7 with 3 riders placed in the first five, proof in its view of the excellent equipment of these two French constructeurs.]

Carnet Corporatif

FIANÇAILLES

[Ebykr summary; the notice’s text is not reproduced. The engagement of M. Raymond Picard to Mlle Monique Piollet was celebrated on 28 May. « L’Officiel du Cycle et de la Moto » sends its sincerest good wishes to the couple and its sympathy to M. Raymond Picard, the dynamic Directeur of Cycles Helyett, the famous firm of Sully-sur-Loire that suffered so much during the war.]

Bibliographie

Une technologie du soudage

[Ebykr summary; the notice’s text is not reproduced. La Soudure Autogène Française, 75, quai d’Orsay, Paris (7e), sends its new catalog free of charge to industrialists and garagistes-motoristes who ask for it. A complete technology of modern welding equipment, it runs to 70 pages with 160 illustrations.]

[A full page of text in two columns divided by a thin vertical rule. At the head of the left column sits a drawn title, “Nos Echos”, in heavy swash script whose unaccented capital E is built around a lattice radio mast; arcs of radio waves radiate behind the letters and the drawing rests on a set of horizontal rules. No signature is visible on the heading. The short items run below in italic text, each under a centered heading in bold sans-serif and separated by small three-star ornaments; the Huret item lists its eleven wins in running italic within the paragraph. In the lower right column two further departments open under large bold headings set over triple rules, “Carnet Corporatif” with the subheading “FIANÇAILLES” set in roman with the surnames in small capitals, and “Bibliographie” with the subheading “Une technologie du soudage” in italic. The folio “— 4 —” is printed at the foot. Ghost capitals from the reverse of the leaf show through faintly across the left column.]