Où en est l’industrie française du cycle — L’Officiel du cycle, 19 September 1953, Philippe Girardet’s Statement of 16 September 1953

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 19 September 1953, N° 39, the paper’s Salon number du Cycle at the Porte de Versailles, page 143: où en est l’industrie française du cycle: statement by Philippe Girardet, Chambre Syndicale Nationale du Cycle, to the press 16 September 1953; fleet of 15 million bicycles, 63 to 72 percent of households own one, 1.5 million sold a year, exports to the colonies; photo of Girardet; boxed Salon notice. 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.

— Page 1 —
OU EN EST L’INDUSTRIE
FRANÇAISE DU CYCLE

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Italic editorial introduction: the magazine is glad to give its readers the text of the statement made by M. Philippe Girardet to the press at its reception on 16 September last by the “Chambre Syndicale Nationale du Cycle”, which he heads with such courteous energy. The editors call the declaration a true act of faith in the bicycle and note with particular pleasure that Girardet defines the bicycle in exactly the same terms as they do, quoting him: « le meilleur engin mis à la disposition de l’homme pour l’utilisation de sa puissance musculaire ».]

[Ebykr summary, Girardet’s statement, left column. The Salon du Cycle opens on Thursday 1 October at the Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, and will continue the career begun sixty years earlier at the Salle Wagram, again showing the vitality of the cycle industry. A thorough study ordered lately by the Chambre Syndicale from a leading market-survey specialist shows that the bicycle is still very much alive. France has a fleet of 15 million bicycles, aged from 1 year to more than 15, the average life of a machine being about 10 years. At least 63 % of French households own a bicycle, a share that rises to 72 % in the countryside and the small towns. In 71 % of cases on average the bicycle is regarded as a working tool; among the most modest classes (about two thirds of the population) the same share rises to 81 %. The survey also shows that the households with the most bicycles are the wealthy ones. The bicycle is essentially a working tool that its owners also use for outings and leisure.]

* * *

[Ebykr summary, after a three-star break. Asked why the bicycle is so widespread, Girardet answers that its cost per kilometer is almost nil, its upkeep is very small and its cost is written off over several years, so that it is the specifically democratic means of transport. The moped (cyclomoteur) is quite different: it costs two to three times a bicycle, its running and upkeep are not free and, like any mechanical machine, its write-off period is shorter. He thinks that whatever its spread, the moped cannot reach the deep layers of the population. The present fleet of mopeds is 1,200,000 units, about a third of them bought within the last year, but the survey proved that a slowing of that pace can already be foreseen. He adds that according to Ministry of Finance statistics drawn from the bicycle tax, two thirds of the decline between 1951 and 1952, which did not exceed 1 % in all, came from the Paris region and in particular the Seine department, where many factors (road network, density of traffic, buying power of the population) favor the motorized vehicle.]

[Ebykr summary, right column. The survey also shows that bicycle sales reached 1,500,000 machines in each of the last three years. Supposing pessimistically that a third of French cyclists take to motorized vehicles, a fleet of 10 million units would still remain, enough to sustain a production of one million bicycles a year.]

* * *

[Ebykr summary, after a three-star break. The countries of the Union Française are asking for more and more bicycles. Cycle exports to the colonies were 85,997 units in 1952 and 38,700 in the first half of 1953; exports to foreign markets were 33,660 in 1952 and 19,468 in the first half of 1953.]

* * *

[Ebykr summary, after a three-star break. The claim made by some that the progress of motorization will kill the bicycle is contradicted by the facts and by logic. The bicycle keeps an irresistible appeal for a very large number of people, and it has the particular advantage of being at once a means of transport or outing and « le meilleur engin mis à la disposition de l’homme pour l’utilisation de sa puissance musculaire ». He closes by asking what can be said of the attraction it holds for children and young people.]

Ph. GIRARDET.

★

« … C’est donc du 1er au 11
Octobre prochain que se tiendra
le 40e Salon de l’Automobile et
du Cycle.
« Il ne faut, en effet, pas
oublier la présence du Cycle et
du Motocycle qui contribue dans
une large mesure au retentissement de cette Exposition. »
(Notice officielle du Salon.)

★

[An editorial page of two text columns under a two-line headline. At the upper left sits a square halftone portrait photograph without a caption or a visible signature: an older man with a bald head, very large dark round-rimmed glasses and a lined face, his head bent down and slightly to one side. The headline stands to the right of the photograph in heavy black slab-serif capitals, “OU EN EST L’INDUSTRIE” on one line and “FRANÇAISE DU CYCLE” on a second, with the italic introduction set between the two lines, opening with a large ornamental italic capital N. Below, the body is set in a roman text type with a large ornamental capital L opening the left column; italic phrases pick out key sentences, and small three-star groups separate the sections. The signature “Ph. GIRARDET.” in small capitals ends the right column. At the lower right a boxed panel with a ruled border open at the top corners holds a quotation from the Salon notice in typewriter type, centered between two black stars.]