Ban Gears, says some old french geezer

from "cycling" magazine september 1965

hear hear!

from "cycling" magazine september 1965

Nice find

BMMF lent me a load of cycling papers from the late 60's

I wonder what Bidot would think of all the people riding fixed wheel in cities now, and the tech in the TdF... :)

dunno, he's been fuckin dead ten years

I read an interview with Federico Bahamontes a couple of years ago where he complained that index gearing made climbing too easy. His argument was that friction shifters didn't allow you to drop a cog when someone attached; you had to respond in the gear you were in, as if you were dicking about with the levers you'd get dropped.

BMMF lent me a load of cycling papers from the late 60's

I think I'm looking pretty good for a child of the '50s.

Je continue de croire que les vélos à plusieurs vitesses sont destinés aux personnes de plus de 45 ans. [...] En ce qui me concerne, donnez-moi une seule vitesse!

    Henri Desgrange, 1902

I misread that at first as "BAN GEARS SAYS BIGOT"
Hmm.

I misread it as "BAN GEARS SAYS BIDET"
Hmm.

I expect jean Bidot was the butt of a good many "bidet" jokes during his 82 years on this planet

Would be wickid to see an old style race, every one on fixed or single speed, very long stages. More blood and guts.

A friend of mine has recently been reading a history of the tour, aparently when it started out all these guys were riding fixed singlespeed, had to carry all their gear and tools, were alowed no outside help and some would start the day on champers and a bit of coke to get em going...

Eugène Christophe's story was pretty insane:

In 1913 Christophe was well placed to win the tour when a mechanical failure cost him the race. The incident happened on stage 6, Bayonne to Luchon in the Pyrenees. The overnight leader was the 1912 champion, Odile Defraye but he had dropped behind on the climb of the Col du Tourmalet. At the top of the Tourmalet, Christophe was the leader on the road, leading by five minutes from a group containing most of his main rivals. On the descent, however, he crashed after his fork snapped. He ran several miles to a forge in the village of Ste. Marie de Campan. Once there he lit the fire and repaired his bicycle observed by race judges. The rules forbade outside help, so when Christophe asked a boy to work the bellows, the judges fined him 10 minutes. Christophe had already lost about four hours. He eventually finished seventh overall in Paris. The building on the site of the forge has a plaque on its wall commemorating the episode.

(from Wikipedia)

He HTFU'd.

He HTFU'd.

Or H'dTFU - a bit like the mother(s)-in-law(s) issue.

L'dOL vs. LOL'd... it's so confusing these days isn't it? :(

A HHSB vs. an HHSB?

(I'd go for the former if I was fleshing out the acronym, but the latter if keeping it short).

But if you say/write 'an hospital' or 'an hotel' I will hunt you down and kill you with a biro.

not before I do.

I thought that particular hatred was mine only

It's an hatred I'm happy to share.

it's certainly an horrendous affectation

'an historic' it makes my blood boil when I hear that on the bbc, it makes me want to write in and complain. but I never do.

but they actually say "an attell" or "an istoric" dropping the "H" as if to make the word sound like it starts with a vowel.

well, I've got a word that starts with a consonant for them:

CUNTS