Les cycles Lucer — L’Officiel du cycle, 1 October 1955, Children’s Bicycles, a Salon Trade Notice

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 1 October 1955, N° 20, the paper’s special number before the Salon du Cycle at the Porte de Versailles, page 89: lucer children’s bicycles (patinettes and Baby models with dural wheels, rubber-covered pedals, load-bearing chain case); photo of a children’s bicycle with chain case and carrier. 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 —
Lucer

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The notice opens by saying that the Société des Cycles et Motos LUCER has again innovated in its range of children’s bicycles, its chief concern for the young riders having been safety. In the firm’s new children’s catalog the author notes that the scooters (patinettes) and the Baby models are fitted with duralumin wheels made in one piece forming rims and hubs, so that there is no longer any danger of children catching their fingers in the spokes, and that the pedals are completely sheathed in rubber, which removes painful knocks.]

[Ebykr summary, after the first photograph. The notice continues that all of the children’s models carry a load-bearing chain case of great strength, which also keeps shoelaces from being caught in the chain and so lessens the risk of falls. In mopeds (cyclomoteurs), beside its newest model “l’Ondine”, LUCER continues to build its usual models fitted with [the sentence continues in the next column, below this crop].]

[A column of editorial text from a magazine page, set in a wide, even sans-serif face under a bold sans-serif heading “Lucer” aligned to the right. Two halftone photographs are set in the column inside thin ruled frames. The first shows a children’s bicycle in side view: a small frame with a long top tube, a saddle, a handlebar with a bent stem, full mudguards, a rear carrier, a large chain case covering the chain and a pale rubber-shod pedal, with a frame-mounted pump or tube along the down tube. The second photograph, below the second paragraph, shows a moped in side view with a saddle, a rear carrier above a mudguard, a dark tank between the frame tubes, a large dark engine and chain cover low in the frame, a front fork and a front mudguard; both wheels and the lower edge of the frame are shown whole. No signature or agency mark is visible, and no text from the reverse of the leaf shows through.]

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[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The sentence begun in the previous image ends here: the usual LUCER cyclomotor models are fitted with “Vap et Mistral” engines, and the firm’s vélomoteurs are fitted with the S.E.R. 65 cm3 and the Sachs 98 cm3. “There too, something new”: all these machines, of impeccable finish, are now delivered in five colors: black, pastel gray, transparent garnet, transparent green and transparent blue. The LUCER works, still growing, now cover 5.000 square meters (printed “5.000 mètres carrés”) of ground and employ more than 100 workmen and staff. The writer then says that “l’Ondine” was mentioned above and that this remarkable novelty deserves a return visit.]

[Photograph: a halftone of the Ondine cyclomotor, printed without a caption.]

[Ebykr summary, after the photograph. The Ondine is in reality a luxury cyclo-scooter meant for a clientele between the cyclo buyer and the scooter buyer, and in fact the first cyclomotor with a plastic body. Its main features are listed as: 2-speed engine block with built-in pedal gear, single chain, front suspension, rear suspension, elegance of line, 7-liter tank, built-in horn and speedometer, and a large hub with a corrugated body. Its fairing is in glass-polyester reinforced plastic, meaning a glass-fabric reinforcement making up 50 % of its weight with a thermosetting resin; such plastics are still little known on the French market but have been used in the U.S.A. in the aircraft industry for more than ten years and in automobile bodywork for two years, and are credited with extraordinary mechanical strength and resistance to chemical and atmospheric agents. The Établissements LUCER have secured the cooperation of the U.A.C.P., a French company that has recently started up, in the Paris region, a modern factory specially equipped for series production of glass-polyester plastics. The U.A.C.P., it is added, has developed its own process, said to surpass American practice at once, for producing parts colored throughout the mass and coated at the surface with a polyester varnish identical to the mass of the part, so that for the user any repairs of surface scratches are extremely easy. The engine is of the make FTK Himo, built in the Saar, a 2-stroke block of 48 cm3 with 2 speeds and built-in pedal gear. The notice closes: “Nous reviendrons sur l’engin dans notre Numéro de Compte rendu du Salon.” A star ornament ends the notice.]

[A column of editorial text in black and white in justified roman type with indented paragraphs. One halftone photograph in a thin ruled frame spans the column, between paragraphs, and shows a cyclomotor in side view: a low step-through plastic body with a flowing rear fender and saddle at the left, a tank and headlamp unit above the handlebar at the center and two spoked wheels, the front one partly under a curved fender. A single black star ornament is centered below the last paragraph. No signature or credit line is visible.]