Rochet: the French Phoenix with the lion’s mane!

HISTORY OF THE BRAND

The origins of the Rochet brand are controversial; there are those who claim the existence of two distinct realities located respectively in Paris and Lyon and instead those who claim that the factory was the same and that it moved from Lyon to Paris.
The certain fact is that the iconography linked to the advertising posters of the era is connected only to the Parisian brand which, since 1903, has been able to make the most of the prestigious posters in the headquarters located in rue de la Folie-Regnault.
Rochet was a large bicycle company, unfortunately we have no trace or any idea of industrial ties with other industries operating in the same sector, however we can affirm that the marketing of the first models took place from 1890 with the inclusion in the catalog of the first bicycles and tricycles
The beating heart of the company’s production was located in Albert in the Somme, the factory stopped production in those industrial plants in the summer of 1914 due to the battle that took place in that territory between the German 6th Army and the French 10th Army, after a few years the Rochet factories were rebuilt in Amiens always in the Somme.
The battle of 1914 marked such a deep wound in the history of the brand that it had led to the creation of advertising signs depicting French soldiers riding bicycles; this iconographic choice could be read as an act of mockery by the French at the expense of the Germans as the battle did not decree the end of production but simply a temporary stop and therefore a rebirth just like a phoenix.
The advertising signs with the soldiers also remind us of the importance of the bicycle as a means of transport for the transmission of communication messages between the front and rear of the armies deployed on the battlefields, these messages were considered vital and extremely important; we also remember that the bicycle, unlike the horse, could travel at night and was certainly more silent than the motorcycle.
The symbol of Rochet is represented by a Lion placed in the background with respect to the terrestrial globe, this symbol was used until the 60s of the twentieth century.

THE BIKE FEATURES

The bicycle is equipped with an inclined frame or as the French would say “plongée” means with the top tube not parallel to the ground but inclined towards the seat tube, another frame peculiarity, which can rarely be observed on bikes of that era, concerns a metal crest which perhaps has the function of reinforcing the frame; this reinforcement is placed immediately behind the front tube of the frame.
Another peculiarity concerns the coupling system between the crank arm and the crankset, in fact in those years the crankset was usually physically detached from the crank arm and hooked to the pivot of the bottom bracket, in this case however it can be seen how the Rochet workers opted for for an innovative solution, in fact the crank acts as a binder between the crankset and the central pin.
The last component worthy of being described is the front spike brake which is activated thanks to the command placed above the handlebar which then passes inside the fork tube to end its stroke by bumping the pad against the front wheel.

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