Bicyclette pas morte !, by Daniel Gousseau — L’Officiel du cycle, 20 September 1952

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 20 September 1952, the paper’s special number for the 1952 Paris Salon du Cycle et du Motocycle, page 15: Daniel Gousseau’s answer to the yearly prophecies of the death of the bicycle. 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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BICYCLETTE PAS MORTE !

Par Daniel GOUSSEAU

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Gousseau opens by saying that, as last year, the Salon will bring prophecies about the early death of the bicycle. Did not the good Docteur Ruffier, a pure cyclist and a great randonneur, himself speak in one of his brilliant articles in his Revue « Physis » of the Grandeur et de la Décadence du Cyclisme? According to him, that second stage has been reached, although he affirms his conviction that man will come back, out of hygiene, to individual physical exercise when all industrial, agricultural and household work is done by machines. The doctor’s conclusion, which Gousseau sets out in italic, is that in twenty or fifty years people may come back to the forsaken bicycle, finding in it an excellent way of putting the body in action while looking at nature a little more closely than jet aircraft and atomic-engined cars will allow.]

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[Ebykr summary, after the first star break. Gousseau does not believe in that period of twenty or fifty years without the bicycle, since he does not believe man mad enough to deprive himself of the services of what he calls our « bienfait social ». That road racing should disappear because it is abnormal and hinders traffic, and because racers can be sent out only exceptionally on a neutralized and guarded road, he grants. That the cyclotouring bicycle used for long randonnées should be replaced by motorized machines is understandable. That people should no longer wish to toil and sweat for vainglory is admissible. But that the plain bicycle, which asks no particular care, which can be kept in the house since it takes up very little room, which allows every short journey without fatigue and with a saving of time, should be given up altogether is impossible: it would take children who had lost all practical sense.]

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Je suis convaincu :
— Que chaque foyer, surtout à la campagne, possédera toujours au moins une bicyclette pour déplacements utilitaires ;
— Que chaque adolescent adoptera la bicyclette, instrument de liberté et économique, pour répondre à ses besoins naturels de mouvement ;
— Que les promenades à pied, lors des villégiatures, seront remplacées par des promenades à bicyclette moins fatigantes ;
— Que les travailleurs devant gagner un chantier ou un bureau et en revenir dans un petit périmètre de leur domicile préféreront le vélo économique au train, au car ou au métro ;
— Que la bicyclette de sport se maintiendra comme se sont maintenus les chevaux de course malgré l’abandon des « 4 pattes » pour les « 4 roues ». Il y aura moins de courses sur routes libres, peut-être plus du tout, mais les circuits gardés et les vélodromes ne mourront pas.

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. After that list Gousseau adds that motorists and airmen will themselves recognize the use of a light folding bicycle carried on board, to make short, quick, untiring and free journeys at the halt. And when the traffic of cars in town, completely jammed, has become impossible, car owners will be seen parking at the gates of Paris and going to their business on a small-wheeled bicycle weighing no more than 4 or 5 kilos, folding, with a very clean shaft transmission, taken out of the boot provided on board the car. Nobody has studied that question thoroughly so far, he says, but it will have to be done. And the « Petite Reine » will remain triumphant, for she is an indisputable « bienfait social ».]

[A text page set in two columns of sans-serif type. The title “BICYCLETTE PAS MORTE !” is set across the head of the page in large light roman capitals, and the byline “Par Daniel GOUSSEAU” stands under it in italic and capitals, ranged to the right of the second column. The article opens with a large drop capital C of three lines followed by capitals, and one paragraph in the first column, the quotation from the doctor, is set in italic. The sections are parted by a single solid five-pointed star set alone and centered. The lower two thirds of the right column is given over to a separate item enclosed in a ruled box, which holds the continuation of another article under the heading “EXISTE-T-IL UNE BICYCLETTE ” 52 ” ?”, so that the matter of this article occupies the whole left column and only the head of the right. There is no illustration and no signature at the foot, the author being named in the byline alone.]