The Velocar Recumbent Bike Made History By Beating The Diamond Frame Bike

The Velocar was actually a four-wheel pedal-powered vehicle. Charles Mochet, at the insistence of his wife, had invented this for their son, George. Since Mom felt it was too risky for George to ride in the congested streets, four wheels on the pavement satisfied her motherly sense of security. The Velocar was an immediate hit, as George was consistently faster than his two wheeled friends.

Whether or not Charles had seen other recumbent designs that were around before his is unknown. What matters is that when he decided to see if cutting the Velocar in half to make a bike would work, it did! In fact, it worked beyond his wildest expectations. It worked so well, that it ended up being his biggest obstacle!

If you were a bicycle manufacture in France in the 1930's, Velocar recumbents had never been heard of. The bicycle industry was very likely experiencing some good years after the 1929 stock market crash in the U.S. Since bikes were still the main way to get around, economics alone should have increased their production. The bike industry was not at all interested in seeing that balance upset.

So imagine that some self-taught engineer dreams up a new kind of bicycle. It uses a frame that is safer, more comfortable, demonstrates better application of aerodynamics, and is creating quite a stir in the Velodromes and on road races. To those whose ears were always tuned to anything that might upset the balance of power in their little empires, this was not good. They were probably hoping this was just a fad and would soon go away.

Francis Faure was considered to be a washed up, second rate rider. So it didn't come as any great surprise that he was the only one Mochet could find to ride his Velocar. All the other pretenders where too afraid of what their peers would say. So it is only fitting that he would enter the history books by riding the Velocar the incredible distance of 28 miles in one hour. He beat every pro rider of the day that he competed against. Now this coveted record was his...or was it.

The facts are simple. He made the ride in the presence of those authorized to certify the event. There were no objects added to the bike to give him aerodynamic advantage. There were two other pro riders that he left in the dust. The hour was completed under timed conditions on a legal track. All the facts clearly point to a new record. Aahhh, but there lies the problem, or the mystery. Facts should never be allowed to get in the way of politics and greed, or at least that's the way it was in France in 1934.

You have to realize that all this is backed up by history, so this is not just an essay on the subject. Here you have a no-name self-taught inventor who has created a no-name bike that has just broken the jewel of bicycle racing. If that can happen and bring world attention to this new fangled contraption, what's going to happen to the bicycle manufactures and the diamond frame bike they have invested so much time and money into? What would happen to the pro racers who had fat contracts with the bicycle manufactures? Does any of this read like something you've read before? Now this is the stuff drama is made of!

So here we have the International Cyclists Union, the UCI, governing body for international cycling. They have decided to meet to discuss this record-breaking event. Now to make things even stickier, a rider by the name of Maurice Richard had just broken Egg's record as well on the traditional diamond frame bike, but the distance was still short of Faure. It was put to the UCI to make the decision.

Are they celebrating that man has shown there are still faster speeds and longer distances that can be done on a bike? Is there celebration that someone from obscurity has been able to achieve something great? What about the excitement of this new design that made it all possible? There seemed to be some question about whether Faure rode a bike! Apparently a bike was no longer a frame with two wheels, a handlebar, seat, crank and chain. Now it had to be defined. While distinction had been made in the past concerning aerodynamic objects as fairings to be illegal for competition, there had never been any question about what was a bike. Do you get the idea that there were some ulterior motives behind this? Read on.

A committee was set up to determine, what is a bike. After some deliberation, a few who were in favor of the new design along with those who imagined they had something to lose, decided the Velocar was...not a bike? It had wheels like a bike, rode like a bike, had pedals and cranks like a bike, Aahhh but it must be because it had a seat that was too big to be on a bike.

It was decided that if the frame dimensions and crank position were not those of the diamond frame bike, then it was something besides a bike. A horse is a horse of course, of course except when it's not a horse. So a bike is a bike, so right so right, except when it's not a bike.

So I guess it's possible to make it not be a bike just by saying so. That's what the UCI would have the world to believe in 1934. Recumbents were banned from competition, and although they will not be courageous enough to honestly come right out and say so...the ban is still in force today. Even though they continued to ride in exhibition races for several more years, Richard never beat Faure, but still got all the glory of the record. And as the French are so gifted at doing they added insult to injury, by claiming Faure had never won a major cycling event, so they did not consider him "worthy" to have had the chance in the first place.

What no one has ever explained is how the UCI ever became the authority on what a bike is or is not. It's amazing to think they could get away with condemning a bike simply because it was better. What's worse is no one really opposed them. I guess since no one really ever challenged their decision, it has been accepted. Accepted by everyone except David Gordon Wilson and a host of others who formed the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. The IHPVA has sanctioned HPV events for years and has been responsible for recording and certifying the many land speed records achieved by recumbents.

While it may have been hidden in history, these things have a way of coming to the surface in the present. The Velocar has a solid place in bicycle history and it sure has a place nailed down in recumbent history. Charles Mochet never gave up on his Velocar and continued to build them. There are some still in use today. Take a look a some unusual bikes that may make history someday.