Book Review: The Bicycle Illustrations of Daniel Rebour

Every subject has its celebrated artists: think of Michelangelo and the human form; Audubon and birds; Stubbs and racehorses; Warhol and soup cans. Of course, our sport is no exception and while many will argue that Frank Patterson's pen-and-ink bucolic English scenes of early 20^th century tweed-clad gentlefolk smoking pipes while relaxing in front of a thatched-roof pub are the finest (and dreamiest) representations of what we cyclists imagine life to be, it is a disappointment that Mr. Patterson was not a cyclist himself and hardly even left his cottage, mostly never seeing the places he drew. So we must look across the Channel for inspiration and here we find the indisputable master of technical drawings of bicycles, their parts and accessories: Frenchman Daniel Rebour. His thousands of drawings are scattered throughout old magazines, catalogues and other publications seldom seen, with the most notable collection being in a Japanese book published in 1976. But now Cycle Publishing has issued a superb hardcover book featuring 2,000 of the master's drawings with brief captions in English to charm all of those with a love of vintage machinery and classic draftsmanship. Captions are by Rob van der Plas, a mechanical engineer himself, with contributions by Frank Berto, another engineer whose vast collection of cycling magazines was a primary source for the illustrations in the book.

Daniel Rebour was born in LeHavre c. 1908 and studied technical illustration in Paris, graduating in 1928 and soon finding work as a test rider and illustrator for a motorcycling magazine. During the Second World War he illustrated car parts catalogues and then moved to Biarritz. Directly after the war a friend approached him about joining a new magazine, Le Cycle, as an illustrator and technical editor. The first issue ran in September 1945, with the magazine appearing as a weekly, then bi-weekly and finally monthly. It continued until the collapse of the French industry after the mid-1970s bike boom, with the last number coming out in December 1975. The detailed drawings continued but now mainly found themselves in catalogues, including those produced for André Bertin, Réne Herse and the VAR tool company. Bertin imported components from several Japanese manufacturers, including Shimano and SR, and so the selection in the book extends beyond classic European products to include the then-new ones from Asia. Rebour published into the 1980s and passed away in 1991. 

The book comprises work representative of the entire period of Rebour's output from the 1940s through the 1980s, arranged in 28 chapters divided into components (derailleur gearing, drivetrains, pedals and clips, rim brakes, etc.), accompanied on the lower half of each page with drawings of entire bicycles. The latter includes many of the race-winning mounts of famous cyclists of the epoch including Ferdi Kübler, Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Raphaël Géminiani, to name a few. There are many familiar names—Campagnolo, Simplex, Huret, Shimano, Peugeot—and many that are obscure or forgotten entirely now, such as Narcisse, Jeunet, Follis, Cardinale, that vanished when the once-dominant French industry faded.

Rebour seems to have drawn everything and beyond the obvious (Campagnolo Super Record parts, Brooks saddles, Wolber tubulars) he included folding bicycles, pumps, lighting, motorized bicycles, clothing, shoes and tools in his repertoire. 

The drawings, beautifully rendered and providing more detail than photographs, present a fascinating array of technological change over nearly four decades. A gold mine to restorers, “Rebour” is a pleasure to simply browse through and revel in a period before carbon fibre, electronic shifting or, apparently, colour printing.

“Rebour—The Bicycle Illustrations of Daniel Rebour”, compilation and texts by Rob van der Plas and Frank Berto

Cycle Publishing, San Francisco, 2013

288 pp., illustrated, hardcover (second, corrected, printing), suggested price US49.95

ISBN 978-1-892495-71-6

For more information, visit www.cyclepublishing.com

A Herd of Tin Donkeys: 1988 Basso

Following my experience riding Richard's singlespeed bicycles and with the endless rain here in Nordrhein-Westfalen, I thought that I would look into building up an inexpensive used bike into a cheap winter trainer with mudguards that would be light, simple and cheap. And cheap.

A quick search of the famous on-line auction revealed some attractive offerings. I thought it would be better to go with as complete a bike as possible so that I would not have to buy a lot of extra parts for the build-up. I missed the chance for a nice but not-quite-complete Vicini as my sniping software failed me but there is no shortage of bikes in Germany and patience is rewarded. Soon afterwards a blue Basso, in excellent condition, came onto the market and I was the successful bidder. By the time it reaches me, I will have a set of SKS mudguards in hand and will discuss with Richard how best to make it into a singlespeed if we go that route. And it already comes with a bell so I can make my presence known to the omnipresent German strollers on the bike routes here.

Basso bicycles are built near Vicenza, Italy and the family firm has been in operation since the late 1970s, first as a retail operation and then with the factory opened in 1981. The three Basso brothers include Marino, who was World Cycling Champion in 1972, but the main driving force is Alcide, who was a racer but made his mark as a mechanic. He apprenticed under legendary builder Ugo de Rosa. Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso is not related to these Bassos. The company has a rather low profile and there is not much out there about older models, unlike Colnago or Cinelli. While Basso bikes have been used by some celebrated racers, it has never had the publicity that comes from sponsoring a top pro team. Nonetheless, the company, which continues to produce all its bicycles by hand in Italy, has a reputation for quality and the bike I purchased looks very good. And it was relatively cheap as well!

The frame is made of Oria 0.9 straight-gauge tubing, suggesting that this bike was at the lower end of Basso's offerings, confirmed by the lower-end Shimano Sport LX parts. The components date the bike to 1988. Oria was drawn by the German steel firm Mannesmann and while fairly stiff it is not considered to be as light or responsive as the better Reynolds or Columbus tubing. However, not only is the bike in surprisingly good condition, but it has many nice details, including the Basso name engraved on the seatstays and the logo engraved in the chrome fork. The dropouts are also marked as Basso. The finish work on the lugs is very clean and I am curious how the bicycle rides compared to my premium bikes. The Concor saddle does not really match well but when the bike gets wet I will not feel bad about it. However, that Shimano Bio-pace chainring will be the first thing to go!

As mentioned, Basso continues to build bicycles and even offers a lugged steel frame, the Viper. However, it has impressive capability in carbon, aluminum and titanium, as you will see in this technical paper. The small but modern factory is located only 5 kms from that other Vicenza bicycle operation--Campagnolo.

"The racing bicycle is derived from practical principles! You need to be comfortable on the bicycle, whether you are riding a short distance or a long one. You can't go as well if the ride is unpleasant...you cannot win the race if you cannot finish the race." - Alcide Basso

Coasting: All Washed Up

Two years ago, I wrote in this blog (here) about a new concept, "Coasting," that Shimano had come up with:  to attract non-cyclists to riding, the company engineered an automatic transmission and it ended up on bicycles made by Trek, Raleigh and Giant in 2007, followed by four other firms in 2008.  The idea was that the 161 million non-cyclists in America could be lured onto the roads if they had simple, fun and relatively inexpensive bikes.  Although it seemed at first that sales were good, it now appears that the program has ended and no Coasting bikes are being produced anymore.

One of the fascinating aspects of Bicycle World is the endless inventiveness as people try to improve the Perfect Machine.  Coasting owes its origins to a design firm, IDEO, which received a brief from Shimano in 2002.  To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail and to the IDEO people the problem seemed to be the bicycle rather than the environment.

Trek's Coasting bike, the Lime, won the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's People's Choice Award in October 2009 but that was not enough to save it.  In addition to the error of applying a technological solution rather than addressing the real problem of why people don't ride bikes, the marketers also priced the bicycles at around $500, which would make them very unappealing to extremely casual cyclists-to-be.  For that money, there are plenty of good bikes (admittedly some that need to be shifted) with practical features such as racks and fenders and wheels that are easily removed for tire changes.

Of course, if you are really not very picky about your bicycle, you can go to Wal-Mart and pick up a Mongoose commuting bike for US$119 (marked down from US$132!).  This is not a typo.  On the other hand, you have to assemble it yourself and will probably have to change the innertubes before the first ride or the plastic pedals (according to a surprising number of reviewers), but, still, 87 reviews of 113 gave the bike at least 3 out of 5 stars, and 34 of those went for the 5.  It seems to me that many of the reviewers were not "hardcore" cyclists but were just looking for cheap transport and were willing to accept parts that fall off sometimes.

The word "fun" does not appear in customer reviews of the Mongoose once but the people who bought Trek Limes seem to really like them.  I guess there were just not enough of those customers.

Coasting Bikes: The Road Ahead or a Dead End?

Giant Suede (top), Trek Lime (centre), Raleigh Coasting (below)

Coasting: Cycling for Everyone?

To the surprise of many of us who are obsessed by–oops, sorry: I meant to say "enjoy"–cycling, the bicycle industry in the United States is apparently in a decline. Bike sales have been flat for a decade at between $5.5 and 5.9 billion but as more high-end bicycles are being sold, cyclists are leaving at the other end of the market or never even getting in. The National Sporting Goods Association calculated that in 2006 35.6 million Americans over age 7 rode a bike at least six times in the year, down from 43.1 million the year before and 53.3 million in 1996. So as the expensive carbon bikes hit the market, revenues were stable but unit sales declined.

Shimano, the Big Daddy of the bike components business, was alarmed and retained a California innovation/design firm, IDEO, to create a better biking experience and, of course, sell more Shimano parts. IDEO went to the homes of non-cyclists across America and met with people to learn about their leisure activities.

In the end, Shimano/IDEO decided that what they were hearing was that cycling had become too intimidating and had lost its child-like fun. The choice available to cyclists had become overwhelming, and over-priced. They did not want to go into a bike shop and talk about technology and performance but wanted to reclaim their memories of just riding around as a kid. Nothing about being too lazy to ride or fear of Spandex!

Working with IDEO, Shimano came up with Coasting, a concept that called for new bikes that looked familiar and were easy to ride and affordable. In fact, the bikes require so little from the rider that they shift themselves, using a Shimano automatic transmission. Shimano also has made an effort to improve the bike purchasing experience so that Coasting buyers are comfortable in bike shops. Shimano then took its concept to several big manufacturers and to date Trek, Giant and Raleigh have Coasting bikes on the market and apparently sales are good. Even Business Week had a story about it.

From the reviews I have read, the Coasting bikes–the Trek Lime, Giant Suede and Raleigh Coasting–are pretty heavy and not very responsive. They are a lot cheaper than a decent Mavic wheelset at around $450 each and they look unthreatening with their rounded lines, covered chains and simple brakes. They do not have lights or even racks so it is unlikely they will be used for even short errands but probably for just riding around subdivisions.

Raleigh One Way

If the Coasting idea brings people into cycling, it is all for the better but it seems to me that perhaps the concept is a dead end rather than the smooth Highway of the Future. The bikes are not designed to be maintained by their owners–just looking at changing a tire conjures up nightmares–and their appeal will be primarily to people who will probably not move to more capable bicycles, either for commuting or sport. There are nice alternatives that are much better bicycles: for example, the Raleigh One Way is a steel classic-looking singlespeed bike (ie. no shifting), with fenders, good brakes, eyelets for a rack and a price tag of only $600.

To me the reason that people drop out of cycling or never get much into it is the perception that it is dangerous to go out and ride a bicycle on the street. I have ridden in heavy city traffic on three continents and there are skills that have to be developed. But there also has to be an environment that is welcoming to bicycles as transportation, whether through traffic-calming, market bike lanes or paths. If this element of the cycling equation were to be improved, I think that more people, across all age groups, would be more interested in cycling in the United States. Selling automatic transmissions to big manufacturers might be easier for Shimano than effective bike advocacy but in the long run–to reduce traffic fatalities, to improve your health, and to just have fun–the industry has to get behind advocacy in a much bigger way.

Cool-looking bikes, though. The first prototype presented by IDEO to Raleigh made the managers liken it to something that was a cross between Audi and Dr. Seuss.

My New Wheels

Pretty, pretty--rolling bling
(photo by James Huang, cyclingnews.com)

You have to be some kind of gearhead to write an entry about your new wheels, but here I go. After some issues with the inexpensive wheels I had put on the Tarmac, I decided to go all out and ordered a set of top-of-the-line Shimano Dura-Ace WH-7801-SL wheels.

There was a good report on Cyclingnews.com which I only discovered after buying the wheelset. I chose it for the reasonably light weight--1600 g--although I did not realize it uses weird proprietary stainless steel spokes. Mr. Informed Shopper also did not realize that it is the only wheelset compatible with the new Hutchinson Fusion 2 tubeless tires. These would appear to be quite revolutionary. They work much like a car tire, fitting snugly against the rim and not requiring a tube. These are not to be confused with tubular tires, which are more or less just like inner tubes without an outer casing. The tubeless tire weighs the same as a traditional tire and tube, so you don't save any weight. The difference is that the tire is only inflated to 95 psi so there is excellent road contact and enhanced cornering capability as the rubber along the sides is stiffer. Rolling resistance is claimed to be no different and of course there is no way to get a pinch flat since there is no tube. Hutchinson, which is, in spite of the name, a French company explains this all in amusing English on its website.

When the wheels came I looked at the instructions and carefully inserted the valves, which fit onto the rim. Then I applied a bit of soapy water and was able to get the tire to sit against the bead of the rim fairly well, but I had to use a tire lever for the last little bit. The instructions warn that using a tire lever except the special Hutchinson one will result in damage but the Crank Brothers SpeedLever works very smoothly and I had the tire mounted in a moment. Pumping it up--you really need a floor pump for this-- takes a bit of effort and it seemed to me a lot of air was leaking out of the sides as I began to work but suddenly the tire bead popped into place and voila! air in the tires. I left them overnight to see what would happen and they were fine, so on Saturday I went to Rock Creek Park and rode 62 km as a test.

The Shimano wheels are pretty stiff and very responsive. Best of all, unlike the old wheels they made no creaking sounds and the cassette body was not binding. Hooray! The Tarmac rides now in total silence, as it was meant to. The tires are fabulous--silky smooth and with amazing cornering grip. Compared to the 140 psi I was used to in my Vredesteins they seem pretty comfortable as well. I have ordered some sealant and once that is in the tire I apparently do not need to worry about flats unless the tire is actually cut. It is then possible to put a tube in it to get home. You can even ride on the rim if you have to, but considering what these things cost I do not find that to be an appetizing prospect.

If these things work as advertised, I think we are looking at the future of cycling. Look, Ma--I'm finally an Early Adopter!