Dans le cyclotourisme — L’Officiel du cycle, 16 June 1951, Front Handlebar Bags with a Map Pocket, Camper Pockets and Front-Wheel Luggage Racks for the Touring Cyclist

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 16 June 1951, N° 17, page 25: article: Dans le cyclotourisme; handlebar bags with map pocket, camper saddlebags, front-wheel carriers and luggage racks for the touring cyclist. 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.

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DANS LE CYCLOTOURISME

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Since last season, the writer says, saddlebag makers have improved their front handlebar bags, making them lighter and above all adding a flap that carries a square of mica horizontally, under which the road map can be slid and held fast on the road. One maker has produced a canvas bag intended for campers that forms an extra flat pocket at the bridge for a few belongings. The writer remarks that the canvas panels are far from large enough, so that the contents would soon get wet in the rain, and says that the idea, which many campers find very interesting, would be better carried out with widely overlapping flaps for maximum watertightness.]

[Ebykr summary, continued. The informed dealer is advised to suggest to his customer one or even several of these pockets or bags, of different sizes, in soft plastic (vinyl resin), which are very light, strictly waterproof and well suited to hold a sleeping bag, pullovers and the like. Development goes on, slowly but steadily, in fitting front wheels with special narrow luggage racks for camping: some are only a horizontal platform, others add a stop to keep the brake clear of the handlebar bag, and one maker has brought out a model with two further stops at left and right so that a load at wheel height does not interfere with cantilever brakes.]

[Ebykr summary, conclusion. Fifty percent of these racks are built to carry the regulation headlamp at the extreme front. Not all customers agree with this, because the rack then cannot be taken off without removing the lighting system. Dealers who are forewarned will do well to stock models of various kinds, including the light models that rest not on the wheel hub at the bottom of the fork but on the mudguard and the handlebar.]

[Text only, a magazine article in roman type in a single wide column. The title DANS LE CYCLOTOURISME stands across the head in heavy slanted capitals with a soft shadow, and below it six paragraphs, each with an indented first line, run the full width. No drawing, photograph, signature or agency mark appears.]