”Clement Bicycles’ – Poster 224
A3 Format poster (420mm x 297mm) in the style of First Day of Issue Postage Stamps.
High resolution Giclée print on archival paper ready to fit off-the-peg A3 frame.
To order a copy please paste the following URL into your web browser:
broodydesigns.co.uk
CLÉMENT CYCLES, La Société des Vélocipédes Clément, Clément & Cie was a French bicycle manufacturer founded by Adolphe Clément. From its beginnings as a bicycle repair shop in Bordeaux, through its establishment as a bicycle shop and workshop in Paris, to its manufacture of a wide range of bicycles from the state of the art factory at Levallois-Perret, Paris, the brand always combined advertising and marketing flair with quality products.
In 1876, after two years of cycle racing, working and saving, Clément-Bayard had enough money to open a bicycle repair works in Bordeaux. He then moved to Marseille where he learned how to manufacture steel tubes for bicycles. The following year he moved to Lyon and began manufacturing whole bicycles under the name ‘Clément SA cycles’.
He moved to Paris in 1878 and opened a cycle business, A. Clément & Cie, at 20 Rue Brunel near the Place de l’Etoile. He also ran a cycling school and competed in cycle races. At the end of 1878 Adolphe partnered the cycling champion Charles Terront at the ‘Six-Days’ cycling event at the Agricultural Hall in London. He also opened a sales showroom at 31 rue ‘du 4-September’, in Paris and started a poster advertising campaign, a new concept.
By 1880 the “Clément” cycle manufacturing business at Rue Brunel, had some 150 employees. The bicycles were regarded as high quality and by 1890 Clément became the leading cycle brand in France.
In 1896 Adolphe Clément, who held the extremely profitable manufacturing rights for Dunlop tyres in France, joined with a syndicate led by Dunlop’s founder Harvey Du Cros, to buy out the Gladiator Cycle Company, which they merged it into a major bicycle manufacturing conglomerate of Clement, Gladiator & Humber & Co. Limited. The range of cycles was expanded with tricycles, quadricycles, and in 1902 a motorised bicycle, then cars and motorcycles.