Paul de Vivie (1853 - 1930) is credited with inventing the derailleur. A derailleur makes it easy for a bicyclist to shift gears, and me myself I think that gears on a bicycle is a pretty rad feature. But the introduction of the derailleur was actually met with some skepticism. The first organizer of Tour de France, Henri Desgrange, argued that “variable gears are only for people over 45.” And he continued: “Isn’t it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur?”
Suffice to say, Desgrange was wrong and Paul de Vivie was right.
De Vivie was the publisher of French bicycle magazine Le Cycliste, and he was also father of French bicycle touring and randonneuring. In addition he was a vegetarian and he could speak Esperanto, so I declare he was a righteous groover. If you’re not convinced, take a look at this photo where de Vivie exhibits proper footwear for the classy bicyclist:
Your reaction to that photo might be “Whaaaat?!?” but that’s only because you don’t understand, and you might never understand, and you would probably rather dress in science fiction shoes while bicycling, if you bicycle at all. But that’s fine, you do you. Except you shouldn’t, you should do like Paul de Vivie and wear sandals when you bicycle.
Just to show how sensible a person de Vivie was, this is his list of general advice for the bicyclist:
- Keep your stops short and few.
- Eat before you’re hungry, drink before you’re thirsty.
- Never get too tired to eat or sleep.
- Add a layer before you’re cold, take one off before you’re hot.
- Lay off wine, meat and tobacco on tour.
- Ride within yourself, especially in the first hour.
- Never show off.
And finally, here’s a couple of illustrations of derailleurs, by legendary drafters Daniel Debour and John Batchelor. I’ve added them just to remind us all, once again, how cool derailleurs are. But I’ve also added them to remind us that sometimes bicycle technical drawings kick ass:
Bibliography
- Ballantine, Richard. Richard’s Bicycle Book. New rev. ed, Pan Books, 1976.
- Rebour, Daniel, Rob Van der Plas, and Frank J. Berto. 2018. Rebour: The Bicycle Illustrations of Daniel Rebour. San Francisco: Van der Plas, 2021.