Jo Routens front derailleur project

Cable operated front derailleurs have been easily available since as early as 1930 and possibly before then. Why is it then that some of the more well respected French custom bikemakers of the fifties and sixties made their own? Rene Herse and Alex Singer both made

rod operated derailleurs and Jo Routens made a cable operated device.

Rene Herse front derailleur from the 1950s.

Simplex cable operated front derailleurs from the 1930s.>

I acquired a small, nicely constructed Routens frame some years ago but the Routens derailleur and its left hand down tube control lever had been sawn off by the previous owner, presumably so that a standard model could be fitted.

A customer was very interested in the frame but only if I could replicate the original derailleur and lever.

I managed to find photos of Routens bikes, some of which showed good images that I could use as patterns.

The original Jo Routens front derailleurs

The derailleur is pretty simple and my replica works really well.

The replica.

I set it up with TA 26/49T double chainrings and the chain makes the jump both up and down very smoothly.

However I cannot see that it works any better than a Simplex or Huret model that would have been available to Jo Routens when he built the bike. So why go to all the bother? Just to say “I can” I suppose.

I made a lever to accommodate the twin (loop) cable.

The derailleur and lever parts are off to the chromer now and the frame to Velocolour for painting. I will post images of the complete bike when it is finished,

Racing gears, then and now.

We have a small club here in Toronto for those interested in vintage and “Classic” bikes. The No-Click Club meets once a month and we endeavour to get a member to present a talk on a relevant subject. The name “No-Click” refers to bikes built before the days of clipless pedals (click in) and indexed gears (click in). Generally this refers to bikes made before 1980.

Occasionally we organize rides on the quieter, and often dirt, roads north of Toronto. About a dozen members turn up on a variety of old bikes. On the last ride, I took out my 1951 Cinelli which was one of three vintage Cinellis present. It was the first time I have ridden it since it was restored and, in fact, the first time I had ridden it in 40 years. It rode very well--as well as any of my much more modern bikes. Although, one major feature, the derailleurs, are not nearly as good. In the late 1950’s and early 60’s when I was racing on this bike the components were ‘state of the art’. The derailleurs are Campagnolo Gran Sport with down tube levers. They are non-indexed of course. At the time I thought they worked really well but now compared to modern equipment they are terrible.

The other noticeable feature is the gear ratios. For all of my ten years of racing in Britain I used the same ratios. A five speed freewheel with 14/16/18/21/24 teeth and TA double chainrings with 48/52 teeth. This was standard on almost every race bike at the time, even the European stars riding the Alps and Pyrenees rode similar ratios. What a contrast to today.

While at the Giro d’Italia this year I managed to spend a few hours with Geoff Brown, a friend who is the Garmin Cervelo Team head mechanic. He was preparing the bikes for the next day’s mountain time trial. For the steep ascent he was fitting ten speed cassettes with sprockets from 11-32 teeth and chainrings with 36T and 52T. That gives a gear range of 30-127 inches compared to the ratios on my Cinelli of 54-100 inches. Even ten years ago it was rare to see a sprocket on a pro bike larger than 26 teeth with an inner ring of 39 teeth. That’s a bottom gear of 40 inches.

Over the years racing cyclists’ gear ranges have become steadily wider. In the early 1950’s, 47/50 on the front with a five speed freewheel with 15-23T on the back was almost standard. By the later 60’s and early seventies 52/42 and a six speed freewheel with 13-23 was the popular choice. The 1980’s brought seven speed freewheels with the possibility of 12 tooth first position sprockets and the popularity of 53T chainrings. The 1990’s brought cassette hubs with eight sprockets and new design cranksets with 39T inner rings. Since then the number of sprockets has increased to ten or eleven with the smallest having 11 teeth.

It wasn’t until the last couple of years that the low gear ratios used by the pros were lower than 39x25. Now we see very large sprockets with 30 or 32T and so called “compact” cranksets with 34T inner rings.

Why did it take so long for the lower gears to become popular? The number of gears available on modern bikes makes it possible. It was always possible to obtain large sprockets in the past but with only five or six cogs on the back the gaps between the gears becomes too great for efficient riding. We have the ten and eleven speed cassettes to thank for the wider gear ranges and the small gaps between ratios. The introduction of easily accessible shift levers combined with the brake levers make it very convenient to select those gears.

Today’s gears and shifters are by far the greatest improvement in racing bikes in the sixty years that I have been around them.

Cycling in Spain and England, a cycle jumble and three old derailleurs

I've spent the last couple of months in Girona, Spain which has given me a chance to avoid the Toronto winter weather and get a few miles in on the bike. The weather has been generally great for riding, quite cool in the mornings but warming to 15 to 20 degrees in the afternoon. Most days there is barely a cloud in the sky. In the two months there has been about three days with rain. Not bad compared with a normal winter in Canada.

During the time here I did go up to London for ten days. That is one of the benefits of living in Europe, one can take a trip to another country and another culture very easily and inexpensively. My return fare to London from Girona was twenty euros, about thirty dollars, via Ryanair.

While in London I visited many old friends, some of which I hadn't seen for almost fifty years. One of these was Mick Ayliffe who I last saw at Easter 1964 when I rode the Isle of Wight Three Day, my last race before emigrating to Canada. Mick and I had driven down to the race in his Morris Minor van, pure luxury in those days.


A 1970 Morris Minor Van, similar but perhaps a little fancier than Mick's 1960 version.

It rained all three days of the race and we were staying at a bed and breakfast with no heat except for a gas heater in our room which had to be fed with a two shilling coin every 15 minutes. Cold, wet cyclists' ingenuity enabled us to undo the bottom of the coin box which allowed us to recycle our one two shilling coin. Each evening was spent huddled around the heater with our wet woollen race clothes drying on the backs of chairs.
The highlight of the race for me was a death defying descent to the finish on the last day when I won the bunch sprint for third place. There were no closed roads for the race and the descent was through a busy town centre mixing it with buses and cars. I could descend quite well in those days I couldn't do it now.

Frequently in England there are cycle jumble sales. It seems that there at least one a month around the London area. Fortunately there was one scheduled at a village hall in Essex not far from where I was staying. It was a great event. The place was packed, the car park overflowing. The hall was filled with vendors tables each piled with all sorts of bike bits for sale, everything from old used bottom bracket axles to new carbon parts and complete bikes. Most of those browsing didn't really seem too interested in buying anything. Most were using it as a social occasion, a time to chat with mates and have a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich. I met a good few old friends and racing colleagues from the fifties and sixties.

I had wanted to get there early as I'd heard that some notorious ebay dealers get there as soon as the place opens and scoop up any collectables. I was on the look out for any old derailleurs that I could add to my collection. I managed to find three interesting ones. The first was a 1949 British Hercules Herailleur in used but good condition. The Herailleur is an indexed three speed . The control, which I didn't get, was a trigger mounted on the handlebar. Quite advanced thinking in 1949.


A 1949 Hercules Herailleur.

Next I found a c1938 British Trivelox. It is in unused condition but again there was no control with it. This unit was interesting to me as most Trivelox derailleurs are unusual in that the sprockets move laterally rather than the derailleur mechanism. I have one of those but I knew that Trivelox had introduced a less expensive conventional model but I hadn't seen one. This was a good addition to my collection.

The Trivelox.


The "Standard" Trivelox , where the sprockets move laterally and the derailleur stays put.

The third derailleur that I found was a "no name". I am sure that it is French and that it is probably a Super Champion but I am not sure. If anyone knows what it is please leave a note in the comment box. I would guess that it is from the fifties

The unknown make French touring derailleur.

Another item that I found at the jumble was this Gian Robert shift lever. The Italian Gian Robert Company is not too well known but has produced some nicely constructed and aesthetically pleasing derailleurs. What were they thinking when they produced this? It is good to see that they patented it.



The cycling scene is flourishing in Britain, certainly around the London area anyway. The congestion charges on motorists entering central London have really decreased motor traffic and there are bikes everywhere. New shops are springing up, it seems, on every corner. Outside of London many of the country lanes are still practically free of motor traffic but the main roads are far too dangerous for me to even think about riding on. If one is willing to use a map or GPS and avoid main roads I think riding in Britain can be as pleasuarable as it was when I left forty seven years ago.

Doc Morton

William ‘Doc' Morton played a large part in Canadian cycling history but very little is known about him these days.

Morton won a bronze medal in the 1908 Olympic Team Pursuit. It has been reported that he competed in the 1901 "Pan American Championships" but I cannot find any reference to such an event. There was a Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo New York that year. Possibly there was a bike race but i cannot find any confirmation of it..

Later in the twenties he opened a bike shop in the West End of Toronto. I understood that the shop was on Dundas West but I have recently read that it was called Lakeshore Cycles which doesn’t make sense if it was on Dundas. I’m pretty sure that he had nothing to do with the Lakeshore Cycles in Mimico.

He built frames which were in great demand by the top riders of the day. In those days the only race bikes were what we would now call track bikes, as fixed wheel was used both on road and track.

I also understand that Morton had a velodrome built in Toronto's Christie Pits.

Some years ago I was given a couple of Doc Morton bikes from an ex racer who competed in the thirties. One was a bike that he had purchased in the late twenties He later fitted a very early Simplex derailleur to it. . The other was a tandem that Doc Morton had built for a Canadian pair to ride the 1932 Olympics. However it never made it to the Games.

Morton also made large flange hubs which were machined from aluminum This was quite a development in those days, when most hubs were made of steel.

Just recently Walter Lai took the following terrific photos of the Doc Morton bike fitted with the three speed Simplex.

If anyone has any more history on Doc Morton I would be very pleased to hear it.


c1928 Doc Morton fitted with a Simplex derailleur and Resilion brake.



The early Simplex derailleur. The tension arm is mounted beneath the bottom bracket and a derailling fork is mounted under the chainstay. This derailleur is very similar to the Super Champion Osgear of the same period.



Early indexing.



CCM cotterless cranks. The very best there were for many years



Resilion Cantilever brake. This was state of the art in the thirties.



Close-up of the brake. It is operated by a complicated "Y" cable.



The Resilion brake lever wasn't the most comfortable to operate from 'the tops'.



It looks as if Morton used CCM lugs and fork crown.



Of course a Brooks saddle was a 'must'.


All of the above photos were taken by Walter Lai. www.walterlaidesign.com

Four out of one hundred.

Of the approximately one hundred bikes that I have, I ride on a relatively frequent basis, just four. I do ride some of the others but very infrequently. I keep them because each has some interesting feature. The four that I do ride all serve different purposes.


Some of the one hundred in the collection




The Bianchi Treader.



The most used is the Bianchi ‘treader’, my commuter and hack bike.
I assembled it around 1991, so it is getting on for twenty years old now. My previous treader had been stolen so I built up this Bianchi frame that I had got in a ‘deal’. My intention had been to use the frame until I got around to building a suitable Mariposa but that day still hasn’t come.

It is a great bike. It handles really well. My only complaint is that the toe clips overlap the front mudguard, which can be a problem but I seem to have managed.

The frame is a Bianchi “Nuovo Alloro” from about 1988. It is made with Bianchi “Formula Two” tubing which I think is Columbus SL.It has a single freewheel of 46x19 which is all I really need around Toronto, although I have noticed that the hill out of the valley is getting a bit steeper these days and if that continues I may have to add another tooth to the freewheel.
The front hub is a Shimano Nexus generator, that works really well. There is a photoelectric switch which switches the front and rear lights on when needed and off when not. It is great. I never have to think about it. The only problem has been two rear bulbs replaced in about fifteen years. The ‘drag’ is insignificant.



The Sanyo headlight powered by the hub generator. The black box behind the fork crown is the photoelectric switch.

The bike gets very little maintenance. The chain receives a drop of oil once in a while and the bike gets a hose down with the high-pressure washer when it gets really grubby.

In the twenty years that I have had it I have replaced the saddle - it broke, replaced the headset - the lower frame race cracked, and replaced two rims – they split along the braking surface. I’ve replaced a few tires and had a few punctures but probably not more punctures than one a year. At the moment I have Vittoria 700x23 tires fitted. I find that these hold the road well even in the snow.

I use toe clips and straps fitted to TA pedals. I want to be able to ride this bike in street shoes and clips and straps work perfectly well for this.

The brakes are Tektro dual pivot. A few years ago I swapped the original Shimano 105 levers for Tektro. These are, I think, the best, most comfortable brake levers available. And they are cheap.


Mariposa "mountain bike". A bike built for the mountains.



My favorite bike is my “mountain bike". It was built for my second successful attempt at the Raid Pyrenean in 2003. I put it together with the idea of keeping the weight to a minimum while including the features that I feel are necessary for the Raid.
Honjo mudguards were fitted as it always rains in the mountains and I made a small and light rear carrier to which spare clothes or rain gear can be strapped.

The frame is made from light Columbus KL tubing that was intended for pursuit bikes but has stood up very well and is certainly stiff enough for me. There is a carbon fork to keep the weight down.

The wheels are Ambrosio Extralight rims with Campag. Record hubs, 32 butted spokes and alloy nipples. They are fitted with 700x25 Cadence Pro Pulsion Kevlar tires.

I have Campag Record derailleurs with a TA Alize triple crankset and Ergopower levers
Gears are 13-26, 10 speed with 52/42/30 on the front.

The brakes are long reach Tektro dual pivot that give clearance for the mudguards.
This is the only bike I have with a threadless headset made necessary by the alloy steerer in the carbon fork. I have yet to see an attractive commercial stem that would fit so I made this one. It is chromed steel, light and I think attractive. The ‘bars are ITM.


The Mariposa stem.

A Flite saddle is fitted to a Campag Ti post. The pedals are Dura Ace.

This is the lightest bike that I own and is a joy to ride. The weight complete with mudguards and carrier is 20 lbs. It is also the newest bike I have being only seven years old.

Alan Cyclo-Cross.




Cyclo-cross is one of my favorite forms of bike racing. I was instrumental in introducing cross to Canada in the sixties after having been an avid cyclo-cross rider in Britain. At Bicyclesport we formed a very successful team in the seventies and at that time I equipped myself with the “state of the art” cross bike of the period, an Alan

The Alans were the first aluminum racing bikes to be accepted by the pro peloton.. They were built with threaded tubes screwed into aluminum lugs and bonded with an adhesive. There had been aluminum bikes before but none were as well received as the Italian Alans. They were quite popular on the road but really made their name in cyclo-cross. Year after year the World Championship was won on Alan frames, very often with another manufacture’s decals fitted.

I got my Alan around 1976 and I am still riding it. Not too often these days, just for a bit of training “on the grass”.
Back in my racing days I used a single TA 46T chainwheel fitted with ‘cross guards’ and 14-28 six speed on the back. I had a Simplex derailleur with a bar end lever. Now I have 13-29 on the back and 42/50 on the front with Campag. Ergo power levers.
The Alan I have is one of their early cyclo-cross frames and does not have cantilever brake bosses. I have fitted Mafac centre-pull brakes which work perfectly well and I have never had them clog up with mud. I have Cinelli ‘bars and stem and a Turbo saddle fitted to a Campag ‘twin bolt’ post.

The original fork steering tube came ‘unbonded’ from the crown which although it didn’t come apart it didn’t allow me to steer in the direction I wished. Alan supplied me with a new fork.

The seat stays are bolted to the seat lug and one of the bolts did come out some years ago. It wasn’t until I looked at the photo of the seat lug taken recently that I realized that the screw is coming out again despite being stuck in with epoxy. It is easy to fix.



That right hand bolt looks a bit loose.

The Alan is now thirty six years old and still going strong, well relatively.


Mariposa Road Bike.





My road bike is now twenty seven years old and although not state of the art these days it still rides well and will probably outlast me. Although the frame is 27 years old it has had various groups of components fitted during that time.

It started out with French components, Simplex SLJ derailleurs, CLB brakes, Maillard hubs, Stronglight crankset and Ideale saddle. It did, however have Cinelli 'bars and stem.

When my son Michael grew into it he raced on it for a few years as a junior For a couple of seasons the team he was racing with was sponsered by Bridgestone and the bike was repainted and fitted with Bridgestone decals. The French components were exchanged for Shimano STI.

After that the bike was repainted into it's current finish, similar to the old Motorola Team colours. Michael had grown out of it and I fitted a Campagnolo 9 speed group with Ergo levers and that is the way it has remained.

It is a great bike to ride but is heavier than my "mountain bike'. I'm thinking of building up a pair of light tubular wheels to give myself a treat for next season.

All photos, except the photos of the stem and the collection were taken by Walter Lai. www.walterlaidesign.com
The stem photo was taken by Larry Strung. www.strungfoto.com
The collection photo by Mike Barry.

Photos of bike parts

Walter Lai has just sent me these photos that he has taken of some of the parts in my collection.
What great photos they are, of some wonderful parts.


This is a CCM Prolight front hub from around 1935. The quality is excellent. It is nickel plated. That oiler is handy. One didn't use grease in those days, not if one wanted the most free running hubs


This is a Campagnolo large flange Gran Sport hub. Note that it is 'double sided' for fixed sprocket or for a multiple freewheel.




This is the matching front Campag GS hub. The pair is from around 1956 and are as smooth today as anything around.
The hubs have chrome steel barrels and aluminum flanges. They were made for Campagnolo by the Italian company FB.
The barrels are engraved with the Campagnolo trade mark and the flanges are engraved FB.
I think that these are just about the finest looking hubs ever.


Gnutti was another Italian company that produced fine bike parts in the fifties. These slender, chromed steel cranks were a bit on the heavy side but sure looked beautiful.

All photographs by Walter Lai. www.walterlaidesign.com

Simplex Tour de France.

As many of you that have read my previous postings will know I have a keen interest in the history of derailleur gears and have accumulated a sizeable collection.

It has been suggested that I write a little about interesting models on a regular basis. This I will try to do in the hope that some of you will also find the subject interesting.

My first derailleur was an early French Simplex Tour de France model which I fitted to my Raleigh Lenton Sports in place of its original Sturmey Archer four speed hub gear. The Simplex was a three speed and had a much closer range of ratios than the Sturmey but it was a derailleur and that is what all the racing men used.


An early Simplex "Tour de France" model.

The Simplex Tour de France was the most popular racing derailleur in the period following the second World War. It was used by many of the top riders of the day including the Tour de France winners Robic in 1947, Coppi in 1949 and Kubler in 1950.


<Ferdi Kubler wins the 1950 Tour using a Simplex TdF derailleur.



A 1950 TdeF with it's wonderful presentation box.



An exploded view of the TdeF derailleur.

Like most derailleurs in the forties and fifties The Tour de France is a "push rod" design. The derailing cage with it's pulleys is attached to the end of a telescoping shaft. The cable is attached to the other end of the shaft by means of a toggle chain. Pulling the cable pulls the derailing cage to the next smaller sprocket. When the cable is released a large coil spring pushes the cage back. This central coil spring also applies tension to the chain.

The big advantage that the Simplex had over it's rivals was a second chain tensioning spring and pivot at the upper end of the main arm. This spring loaded pivot ensures that the upper pulley remains close to the sprockets irrespective of sprocket size. The close coupling of pulley and sprocket ensures crisp gear changes.

There is a nut at the end of the shaft that holds the whole mechanism together. It was not unknown for this nut to come off the shaft whereupon the spring shot a multitude of parts across the road much to the despair of the rider and the hilarity of his riding companions.

The patented "two sprung pivots" design was peculiar to Simplex from its introduction in 1946 TdeF model right through the Simplex range until the company's demise in the late eighties. Now all derailleurs use this design.


Fausto Coppi on his Simplex TdeF equipped Bianchi. 1949.

During their hey-day Simplex had factories in Italy and Germany. No doubt Coppi used Italian made Simplex which were somewhat better finished than those made in the parent factory in Dijon.

The Simplex Tour de France model was made in four types: three speed and four speed for 1/8" chain and four speed and five speed for 3/32" chain.

For it's time the Simplex Tour de France was a relatively reliable and efficient mechanism. The UK distributer described it in their advertisements as: "The gear with guts and glamour".

Watching the Tour

My wife, Clare and I spent two weeks in July following the Tour de France. Although I had been to the Tour many times before this occasion was definitely the most memorable as our son Michael was competing for the first time.

The first time that I saw the Tour was in 1956 when I rode to Paris from London with a ferry crossing of the Channel. There were four of us who were all good friends: Rhett, Frank, Brian and me. Our bikes were loaded with camping gear as we planned to camp in farmers’ fields along the way. The 350 kms. took us about four days and on arriving in St. Denis on the outskirts of Paris we managed to get permission to pitch our tents in just about the closest field to the City. The farmer and his wife made us very welcome, even providing us with more comfortable bedding and meals.


Rhett, Frank and Brian on the road to France, 1956.

A couple of days later we rode out to a hill on the Tour course and joined the crowds waiting the arrival of the race as it made its way to the Parc des Princes Velodrome in the centre of Paris. In those days the Tour always finished on the Parc des Princes and unlike today where the last stage is always a parade, then it was a hard fought race. The publicity caravan threw out souvenirs similar to those of today and we scrambled to collect them. When the race came through I managed to get a few photos--even a pretty good one of the yellow jersey Roger Walkoviak. We spotted many of our heroes that we had seen before only in the French sports magazines.

Roger Walkoviak on his way to winning the 1956 Tour de France.

As soon as the road was opened we jumped onto our bikes and followed the course to the Parc des Princes. When we arrived, the Tour presentations were finished but an international track meeting was in progress. There were no attendants on the gates so we parked our bikes, selected great seats in the stands and for the next couple of hours watched the best track riders in the World. A sprint competition with all the best sprinters of the day was won by my schoolboy hero, Englishman Reg Harris with fellow countryman Cyril Peacock taking second.

The finale of the meeting was a hard fought motor pace race behind the ‘big motors.' It was a thrilling display of speed and skill which was animated by the thundering noise. Verschueren of Belgium won the race, followed by Godeau of France and Timoner of Spain. The spectacle of those riders thrashing around the steep bankings of the Parc des Princes behind those big, noisy pacing motor bikes with flames coming out of the exhausts will always remain in my mind as possibly one of the most exciting sporting events that I have seen.
We hadn’t seen much of the Tour de France but we had had an exciting day, so I was determined to see more the next year.

In 1957 Rhett and I took the train from London to Pau in the Pyrenees. We were greeted with very low cloud and rain but we immediately set off to climb the Col du Tourmalet. When we arrived at the top we certainly knew we had been climbing but hadn't yet seen anything of the mountains as we had been in cloud all day. The restaurant was a welcome refuge from the weather and after a good meal we set off into the fog to make the descent.

Eventually we got below the cloud and could see a meadow at the side of the road. We decided to camp there for the night. There was an inn close by where we were served a wonderful warming meal. We went to sleep in our tent, tired from the ride but without having yet seen anything of the surrounding mountains, which had been shrouded in cloud all day.

I awoke to bright sun streaming into the tent. I put my head out and had my breath taken away by the surrounding beauty. Having grown up in London, these were the first real mountains I had ever seen. Even today I remember that sight as one of the most beautiful. The calm of the serene mountain environment, the sound of the breeze and the aroma of the pastures and trees was unique to a boy who had spent his youth often riding in the coal smog of London.

We spent the day hiking in the area before tucking into our tent for our second night of sleep. Again in the morning we awoke to bright sun but that morning there was a difference: the road which had been deserted the previous day was now just one stream of cars, buses, bikes, motor bikes and walkers moving up the mountain. The Tour was due through in about eight hours.

After a leisurely breakfast Rhett and I joined the crowd and made our way up the mountain on our bikes. We found a great vantage point and there we waited for the whole moving circus that is the Tour de France. We weren't disappointed. We collected souvenirs from the caravan and then watched and cheered the riders as they made their way up the mountain towards us. Prominent was the yellow jersey clad Jacques Anquetil riding towards his first of five Tour victories. After the race passed there was the previous years winner, Walkoviak, in the broom wagon. He had climbed in lower down the mountain.

That first experience of the Pyrenees formed my love for those mountains and I have been back many times since.

I’ve also been back to the Tour many times since. I have seen most of the greats of cycling over those years and seen the race from many different vantage points. This year however was the first time that I have followed it for more than a couple of days.

We hoped that Michael would be selected by his new team Sky to ride the Tour but it wasn’t until two weeks before the start that we got the call that he was on the team. Clare and I had just returned from a few weeks in Girona but we immediately decided to return to Europe and follow the Tour. A few days of searching the internet for flights, rental car and accommodation followed before we were set to go. We decided to meet the Tour at the end of the first week and follow it through the Alps and Pyrenees and on to Paris.

We flew to Geneva and met up with Clare’s brother Ralph and his daughter Laura who were to be with us for a few days. The next morning we went to the stage finish in Station des Rousses, a Ski resort in the Jura mountains. which was memorable by us getting caught in probably the heaviest rain storm that I have ever experienced. Fortunately it was after the stage finished and we had met up with Michael. He seemed well but was suffering from the injuries that he had sustained in a crash on stage two.

The next day we were in Morzine for the stage finish and then the rest day. We visited the Team Sky hotel and met up with the French family that Michael had lived with when he raced for an amateur team in nearby Annemasse. I’m sure that if it hadn’t been for their hospitality and help during those early years in France, Michael wouldn’t have been able follow his dream the way he has. Also in Morzine was Michael’s team director from those days Christian Rumeau. Rumeau is a great guy who directed Pro Teams for many years before ‘retiring’ and looking after the Velo Club Annemasse. He has a wealth of experience from directing Sean Kelly, Charley Mottet and many other top riders. Even today he takes an interest in Michael’s career and was very keen to get together with him on the rest day. Michael has been lucky to have his friendship and advice all these years.

The Team Sky staff really made us feel welcome and were very helpful in supplying us with passes to stage start and finish areas. They even arranged for me to take a trip in one of the Tour helicopters. That was quite an experience but not really the ideal way to see a bike race. We were too high to be able to pick out riders but what fantastic scenery.


The Tour from a helicopter. Not the best way to watch a bike race.

In Toulouse we were able to stay in the same hotel as Team Sky for a couple of days. Dede and the boys drove up from Girona to be with us and we were joined by a group of friends and Michael’s fans from England including my ex business partner from Bicyclesport days Mike Brown and his wife Jacqui. Jacqui had had some T-shirts made for us to wear.


Our English friends and Michael Barry supporters



The Team Sky staff made us very welcome. The mechanics even cleaned the boys bikes with their high pressure hoses much to Liam and Ashlin’s delight.


Ashlin's bike gets a cleaning from the Team Sky mechanic while team mate Liam admires his nice clean machine.




We stayed together with this group for the next few days while the Tour was in the Pyrenees. We had a wonderful time. Each day we drove from the hotel out to a vantage point to watch the race. Unfortunately we couldn’t get up on to the Tourmalet as the road had been closed two days before the Tour was to arrive due to the immense crowds camping up there.


A few of the campers at the top of the Col d'Aspin


We saw the race in a small village on the lower slopes and then found a bar with a small TV. We were about the first to arrive but soon after the bar was packed with bike racing fans shouting encouragement at the images of Contador and Schleck on the 14” screen. We were surprised to meet some Canadian fans of Michael’s amongst the crowd. The atmosphere in the bar was wonderful with the couple that owned the place giving out free treats to the crowd that responded by buying even more beer. I’m sure that it was the greatest number of people that they have ever packed into that bar.
Clare and I left our English friends before going on to see the time trial in Bordeaux. After watching the start and spending a very interesting time in the “Start Village” we walked along the course through the town to our hotel. The large flat screen TV in the lounge was excellent to watch the last chance for Schleck to beat Contador. Of course it wasn’t to happen but it was an exciting race nonetheless.

We had the lounge to ourselves other than for Liam a ten year old American bike race fan who was following the Tour with his father Bill Flanagan. They had ridden all the Pyrenean passes and Liam had the same enthusiasm for the sport that our son Michael had at that age. We told them about the Jeugdtour in Holland where Michael and the rest of our young group of riders had had many great experiences.

The Jeugdtour had always been held earlier in July so it was a surprise when a few days after returning to Canada we received an e-mail from Bill telling us that Liam was competing in the Jeugdtour in Assen. After we had said good bye to them in Bordeaux Bill had looked up the Jeugtour on the internet and found that they had a couple of days to get Liam an International USCF license and get to the start in Assen. Liam had a similar wonderful experience as Michael and the other Bicyclesport Club members had many years before.
Details of Liam’s experience in the Jeugtour can be seen on Bill’s web site: www.fathersontour.com

After Bordeaux Clare and I took the TGV to Paris for the finish of the Tour. Again Team Sky really looked after us by getting us grandstand seats on the Champs Elysee. Michael’s wife Dede and their two young sons joined us. It was fun to see three year old Ashlin shouting “go Poppy” each time the peloton passed and it was an emotional moment to see Michael leading the whole field on the last lap.

The trip to the Tour had been a wonderful experience. Michael had made it to Paris and had ridden very well for the team despite having fractured ribs and suffered other injuries on day two, which had made the three weeks very uncomfortable. Meeting up with our friends from England and some of Clare’s family had been marvelous. Being so involved with the Tour over two weeks is a time we shall never forget.

The Tour is massive, undoubtedly the greatest annual sporting event in the World. The logistics of moving everything from one town to another every day, setting up miles of barriers, press centres with all the communication facilities, finish and start areas with massive TV screens and “VIP” seating just boggles the mind. The crowds are immense. For what other sport would fans wait for hours, in all weathers, by the side of the road and then see the action for only a few seconds, which is often the case when the peloton is all together.

This was my eleventh visit to the Tour in 54 years. Things have certainly changed. In 1956 the riders and the crowds were all Continental European. Now there are riders and fans from all over the World. It was great to see all the Canadian flags, at times outnumbering the US. There were many fans from New Zealand and Australia and many more this year from Britain supporting Team Sky. Being at the Tour is an experience that any bike race fan should not miss.

Photographs of bicycles

I built this Mariposa for Ken Smith in 1972 (See previous post, 20/4/2010)
Click on images to enlarge


My computer has hundreds, possibly thousands of photographs of bikes on it’s hard drive. In addition I have shoe boxes filled with photos from pre-computer times and dozens of bike books. There are photos that I have taken in museums, photographs taken of interesting bikes at the Cirque du Cyclisme, NAHBS and trade shows, photos of Mariposas that we have built and photos of bikes that I have seen on the street and want to record.

Bikes after all are beautiful objects. They are simple machines that have remained unchanged in basic design for more than one hundred years. The design has remained unchanged but the beauty is in the detail. Innumerable people have made attempts at improving the bike. Some attempts have been successful, most have not. However even the unsuccessful attempts make wonderful photographic records.

Bicycles and their parts are not easy to photograph well. Some of the finest bicycle photographs that I have seen are in Jan Heine’s two books, “The Competition Bicycle” and “The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles.” Both books are filled with marvelous photos taken by Jean Pierre Praderes.

I also have a collection of what I think are interesting bikes. I have bikes of all types and have often thought that it would be good to have a comprehensive photographic record of them all. Some years ago my good friend photographer, David Harris made a start on the project but now he no longer lives in Toronto and it is not convenient for him to continue.

Recently another good friend, Walter Lai, who has helped me with setting up my web site and this blog, suggested that we get back to photographing the collection with the idea of publishing a book.

Walter is not only a wiz-kid with computers but is a professional photographer who spends a lot of time photographing merchandise for brochures and catalogues. He is also very interested in bikes.

Last weekend he set up a studio in our shop and started on the project. A great deal of time was spent getting the lighting just right and we didn’t make a great dent in the number of bikes to be photographed but I think that the results are fantastic. They make my previous attempts look pretty pathetic. It is marvellous what a pro can do with the right equipment.

Here are a few samples of Walter's work.


The bike in the Torpado Project ( see previous post 23/1/2010)




My 1951 Cinelli (see previous post 24/2/2009)




Gios with Campagnolo 50th Anniversary group.




Close-up of Ken Smith's 1972 Mariposa.



Early fifties Bates track bike.


All photographs by Walter Lai. www.walterlaidesign.com