Re: [CR] Eugene A. Sloane

(Example: Production Builders:Cinelli)

In-Reply-To: <11d2bd949167dffbc4487b03eb69a8dc@sbcglobal.net>
References: <497058.89225.qm@web82207.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:13:17 -0700
To: Phil Brown <philcycles@sbcglobal.net>, Classic Rendezvous <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] Eugene A. Sloane


At 9:26 AM -0700 6/16/09, Phil Brown wrote:
>To expand on Jerry's post, I think it's hard for cyclists today to
>comprehend the dearth of information available in the early 70s. In
>those days cycling was basically an oral tradition with information
>passed down by the griots in the clubs and, hard as it may seem
>today, you learned about the Tour de France from the short wave or a
>2 month old Cycling or the late lamented International Cycle Sport.
>In this vacuum Gene Sloane was like a hurricane of information,
>followed by Fred Delong's more technical book. And the CONI manual.
>That was it.
>Hard to believe today.
>Phil Brown
>Bought my CONI manual 1 mile from where I live today in Oakland, Calif.

I cannot imagine how it was in the 1970s... but even in the early 1990s, we were searching for scraps of information.

When I first got interested in French constructeur bikes through the writings of Mike Kone, I had only heard of them, but never seen one. Mike told me there was a photo of a Rene Herse in Sloane's book. So I bought Sloane's book at a used bookstore, but instead of an Herse, I found Sloane's personal Alex Singer (complete with the neighbor's daughter, or whomever she was). A good start, but what about the Herse? Turned out, I needed the first edition. I found that at another used bookstore, and bought it for $ 8, just to see one grainy photo of a Rene Herse! Perhaps the most I have paid for a poor quality photo...

Then there was a small Japanese booklet that showed a few Toeis, Watanabes and classic European bikes, including the odd Herse and Singer. Wataru, a Japanese collector living in Boston, brought over a few copies. Like most things Japanese, it was expensive, but became a prized possession for all lucky enough to get one. Those who had a copy would not lend it out, but only allow their friends to leaf through it under supervision, after having washed their hands.

Then there was the mythical Data Book. Full of drawings, nobody knew what they were, because there were no figure captions. Printed only 100 copies or so, by some Japanese printer as a gift for his clients. Finding one of those was impossible, and most of us had heard only rumors of Aheadset-type stems, indexed shifting and suspension forks from bygone ages. This was many years before Vanderplas reprinted it for widespread distribution.

Those were the days...

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com