Paul de Vivie
Paul de Vivie ( born April 29, 1853 in Pernes- les -Fontaines, † March 4, 1930 in Saint- Étienne ), called Velocio, was the editor of Bike magazine Le Cycliste and a pioneer of cycling tourism and long distance cycling.
Life
Paul de Vivie was born in the city Pernes- les -Fontaines in the department of Vaucluse. His father Edmond de Vivie comes from an old noble family of Gascony, and was postmaster; his mother Marthe novel comes from Arles.
He lived in Tarascon and Meyzieu and attended secondary school in Lachassagne at Lyon until 1870, then he worked as a merchant in a silk factory.; there finally the chance he was given to open a branch in Saint- Étienne, where he married in 1876.
In 1881 he sat for the first time on a bicycle; he was then secretary of the Club of cyclistes Stéphanois, and organized on July 9, 1882, the first bicycle race in the region. Since the silk trade often led him to England, he got to know the high quality of the bicycles produced there. He then in 1882 founded the Fahrradmanufaktur La Gauloise and 1886, the Agence Générale Vélocipédique. In addition, in 1887 he founded the journal Le cycliste Forézien, which was renamed in 1888 in Le Cycliste. His articles in this journal he signed it with the name Velocio.
In 1889, he campaigned for the creation of the Touring Club de France, following the example of the British Cyclists' Touring Club. This association had in 1890 already more than 500 members. He also took himself numerous wide bicycle tours and is considered the inventor of the term cyclotourisme ( = bicycle tourism).
In addition to the cycling is de Vivie also interested in Esperanto, as a language for communication in cycling holidays abroad. In addition, he was a vegetarian and demonstrated his fellow man that you can powerfully cycling and healthy living with such a diet.
On 27 February 1930, he collided in Saint- Étienne with a tram, went into a coma and eventually died on March 4 at his serious head injuries. His grave is in the cemetery of Loyasse in Lyon.
(Removes National road 82, 17 km from Saint -Étienne ) on the Col de la République dedicated a monument to him; this is also the target of the Montée du Col de la République chronométrée, an annual race that starts in Saint- Étienne at the roundabout Rond-Point Velocio.
Invention of the gearshift
As Paul de Vivie 1889 Col de la République up cycled, he was overtaken by a reader of his journal - during that smoked a pipe. This annoyed him; with a lower translation he would although faster cycle uphill, but would be slower on the plane. Then he fastened two chainrings on the crank, to have both options. In 1906, he then added additional sprocket on the rear wheel and invented the derailleur in order to vary the gear while driving. However, it is not patented his invention so that he could hardly derive a financial profit from it.
Other cyclists were not always enthusiastic about the gearshift; for example, wrote Henri Desgrange, the organizer of the Tour de France, in the journal L'Auto, a gear shift would only be suitable for the handicapped and women. De Vivie, however, could not be dissuaded and cycled every morning on the Col de la République to depend cyclists without circuit.
Some of his designs you can see in the Musée d' art et d'industrie de Saint- Étienne today.
Seven Laws of the long distance cycling
De Vivie demonstrated that you can drive very long stages with the bike ( he drove up to 40 hours at a stretch ), and summed up his experience in the following principles together:
- Publisher
- Frenchman
- Born in 1853
- Died in 1930
- Man