At 6:02 AM -0800 1/23/08, Norris Lockley wrote:
>In the recent discussion about the hostory of aluminium parts and
>their general availability linked to their relaiblity, Jan Heine
>posed a question about when the first aluminium frames were brought
>into use, and at the same time suggested that there didn't seem to
>be many around in the 1920s.
>In France, Pechiney, France's largest supplier of aluminium in all
>its forms to industry as a whole, including the food industry in
>which Pechiney is a market leader , have carried quite a lot of
>historical research into the history of the aluminium frame.
>Although in 1898 the Humber Cycle Company is credited with producing
>the first cycle frame with both frame and fork and handlebars in
>aluminium, Pechiney suggest that the cycle industry had to wait
>until 1933 for a certain Monsieur Py, a Frenchman, to produce the
>first aluminium frame.
>This initiative was then followed in 1935 by M. Caminade, with his
>bolted together Caminargent, with M Barra producing his first
>frame, a gas-welded construction in October 1937.
Norris,
Py was associated with the Delage car maker, it appears. If I remember correctly, his frame was made from aluminum tubes pressed into steel lugs. I never have seen one, nor met anybody who recalls it. So it may have been a one-off that made it into the literature, and now gets quoted time and again.
Caminargent and Barra are real, and they each made quite a few.
Your (or Pechiney's) dates don't match my sources. I have 1936 (not 1935) for the Caminargent (various articles in the French cycling press). The Caminargent frame is not mentioned in the press in 1935.
Barra's first aluminum frame appeared at the technical trials in August 1936 (see Bicycle Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 4). It appears to have been introduced there. So the October 1937 date is wrong.
So that means that Caminade predated Barra only by a few months. These dates also are found in R. Henry's article on Barra (Cycle History Proceedings No. 12).
By the way, the first aluminum Barra at the 1936 trials was a 60 cm frame, ridden by the powerful L. Brans (who later cycled from Paris to Saigon in 9 months). It did not break... but it also was 80 grams heavier than the (smaller 55.5 cm) steel Barra that won the event. The steel bike was made from 3/10 mm Reynolds tubing - hard to beat in any material. (It also had a front derailleur and higher average speed, which gave it the edge in points.)
Two years later (1938), Barra's rider Brans entered as a constructeur under his own name, using a Caminargent frame. (In France, the person building up the bike, and not the person making the frame is considered the maker.) His bike was ridden by Jo Routens (who went on to become a famous constructeur himself after the war). Not only did it survive the trials, but Jo set the fastest average speed on a very rough course. (Jo was a very strong rider who could have made it among the professionals, according to many of his friends and competitors.)
However, despite all the aluminum bikes, it was Herse (who rode for Narcisse) whose bike was by far the lightest in 1938 - on a steel frame. Because Herse used his own superlight components, his bike weighed 1 kg (2.2 lbs.) less than the next-lightest competitor. Fully equipped, with racks, fenders, fat tires, and lights, his bike weighed 7.940 kg or 17.67 lbs.
I promise I won't bring a scale to the Handmade Show, but the lightest fully equipped Bicycle Quarterly test bike, a Peter Weigle, weighed 23.7 lbs with narrow 25 mm tires. Most comparable bikes today weigh between 26 and 28 lbs, or almost 10 lbs. more than that Narcisse in 1938.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
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Seattle WA 98122
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