Does that mean that British tariffs on cycle components were lower than in France and Italy? Also I seem to note that the continental components one sees on British bikes and in British catalogs from the 50's and 60's were overwhelmingly French, with only a limited representation from Italy, mostly consisting of Campy racing gears. Perhaps that is just a reflection of the British club riding culture, which had more in common with the cycle touring, audax, etc. popular in France than with Italy, where cycling seems to have been much more narrowly focused on serious competition and less on broad participation. Thus perhaps France was much more able to supply the wide range of components for the varied segments of the British cycling scene than were the Italians.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Houston, TX
"kohl57@starpower.net" <kohl57@starpower.net> wrote:
Original Message: ----------------- From: Doug Wagner velodoug2004@yahoo.com Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 07:54:37 -0700 (PDT) To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Re: "By Jingo"
"One of the things that encouraged "parts nationalism" was the differing threading and tube sizes, right? French/English/Italian threaded head se ts and BB? Also there were import barriers and tariffs to encourage home gr own parts usage. "
Exactly. I am convinced tariffs played a major role in the development o f quite separate and distinct cycle industries in France and Italy. As I surmised in a previous post, why would Simplex have found the need to have
a manufacturing capability in Italy? Possibly to get around the tariff issue. Cycle manufacture was a basic late Industrial Revolution staple o f many countries and precisely the sort of industry that tariffs protected.
So if you were an Italian, hankering for a French racing bike, you could get one but could you afford it? How many Italian racing men used French
bikes or vice versa? But a lot of Italians used Simplex derailleurs fabbricato in Italia.
Britain must have been different for if you really like truly Internationa l Bikes, look no farther than the spec sheets for top end Holdsworths, Claud
Butlers, Carltons etc: loaded with continental components from every country and every combination. And from very early on. The frames were
British made of British materials but the rest... the world was the cyclist's oyster it seemed.
Now I want an all British 1960s lightweight. But the more I look, the mo re I am convinced that would be actually a non prototypical contrivance.
Peter Kohler Washington DC USA
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