1979 Paris-Brest-Paris article, Cycling Weekly

[hubner]

"Cycling" magazine 1979-10-27, 2 page article on the 1979 Paris-Brest-Paris by David Pountney



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[Graeme]

Brilliant read

[bairn again]

A fantastic read and always nice to hear about George Berwicks palmares, mans a legend. 

[Ajax Bay]

"A new differential-speed gear with 12-18 block and high 40s/high 50s rings that enabled them to push a high gear with little extra effort . . .[but], weighing 4 pounds"

[LittleWheelsandBig]

"A new differential-speed gear with 12-18 block and high 40s/high 50s rings that enabled them to push a high gear with little extra effort . . .[but], weighing 4 pounds"

That might have been the BioCam, forerunner to the PowerCam (which is more likely, though doesn't match the description). The PowerCam (and a prototype?) was used by Scott Dickson for very fast finishes (<50 hours) to the first couple of his five PBPs.
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/Biocam_USA.htm
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/PowrCam_main.htm

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/canadian-cycling-magazine/20160315/281651074205618 shows the cam that oscillates the chainrings relative to the cranks as they rotate.

[ausrandoman]

Thank you very much!  That was a trip down memory lane and quite an emotional experience to read it again.

I bought a copy of this magazine while I was on a cycling tour in Britain in '79.  I had never heard of Audax Club Parisien,  brevets, or Paris-Brest-Paris but this article fascinated me.  I folded up the magazine, tucked it in my Karrimor pannier and took it home to Australia.  I contacted Sir Hubert Opperman, who put me in touch with Robert Lepertel.  ACP replied to me and to another Australian, Russell Moore, who had coincidentally enquired also, and the two of us started Audax Australia.  I eventually did my first PBP in 2003. 

I don't know what became of my copy of the magazine in the 40 years since, but I never forgot how it fired my imagination.  Thank you for going to the trouble to make it available here.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Hello Alan. Shades of butterfly wings and hurricanes with a magazine article leading to the creation of Audax Australia.

My own introduction to PBP was Bicycling Magazine! (USA) and Freewheeling (Oz) articles of the 1983 edition, when Frank, Russell and Stephen came over from Oz and finished.

I should ask Barry Parslow about Edmund Jones, listed as an Aussie finishing PBP79, PBP83 and PBP87 (but also in AUK's records), as they were both in the Willesden for PBP87. Perhaps Edmund moved to Oz before DNFing PBP91 and/or PBP95.

[frankly frankie]

This was the article that got me into audax.  (Though it was a slow burn - I read it when it first appeared in 1979 but my first audax wasn't until 1982.)

[hubner]

I scanned most of that issue's pages years ago.

I got it from a cycle jumble, 1979 was a few years before I first got into cycling. What caught my eye was the front cover of Hinanut:



And it has quite a lot of interesting articles apart from race results.

[hubner]

Back cover of Phil Bayton

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I should ask Barry Parslow about Edmund Jones, listed as an Aussie finishing PBP79, PBP83 and PBP87 (but also in AUK's records), as they were both in the Willesden for PBP87. Perhaps Edmund moved to Oz before DNFing PBP91 and/or PBP95.

Barry does not remember Edmund. Perhaps another longtime Willesden person might recall him, perhaps Assassin OTP?

It turns out that Ray Kelly (6xPBP and Willesden CC stalwart) remembers doing many brevets with Edmund Jones. Apparently he was an Aussie who lived in the UK for decades and took to riding Moultons in later years. That makes Edmund the first Aussie to finish PBP after Oppy won the pro race in 1931, ahead of the three Australians who did PBP83.