The Cl�ment V4, Maurice Fournier and the Parc des Princes - Vintage and classic motorcycle

Maurice Fournier on the Cl�ment v4 at 108 kph.

The immediate beginning of the twentieth century saw some of the most exciting racing motorcycles ever built. It was an age of experimentation, daring riders and huge leaps forward. Within the space of 10 years machines had gone from a top speed little more than walking pace up to more than 100 kph. The attrition rate amongst riders was gruesome with races being held on unmade roads and wooden velodromes. For a handful of glorious years France was at the forefront of this revolution and one of the twinkling stars of the halcyon days was the Cl�ment v4.

The Cl�ment is credited with having the first v4 engine made, it was a product of the era of 'freak' engines when it looked like the only way of going faster was to go bigger. Some truly impressive beasts emerged from these times both on four as well as two wheels but even at the time it was evident that the gains were marginal as the large machines were often beaten or matched by their smaller and simpler contemporaries in all but straight line performance.

The 1500cc Cl�ment v4 appeared in 1902 and was quite a technical tour de force. As well as being the first v4 engine and the first four cylinder race bike it also had overhead valves and chain drive. The v4 is also credited with being the first motorcycle to top 100 kph.

The pictures of the Cl�ment v4 on this page are seemingly the only ones in circulation and the details given from captions confusing and it seems more than likely inaccurate. For this post I've done a spot of research, given some background history as well as meandered down a couple of side avenues of interest. The post is (whilst far from exhaustive) probably the most you will find on the Cl�ment v4 on the good old interweb, in the English language at least. If you can add to the story or have corrections, do get in touch....

Cl�ment cycles art-nouveau style ad.

Cl�ment motorcycles, the early years

Cl�ment was already a well established bicycle manufacturer, first in Lyon before moving to Paris, prior to entering the motorcycle market in 1901 (or 1902 depending where you get your information from). Gustave Adolphe Cl�ment was also a major investor in the Gladiator bicycle company, Gladiator was bought in 1896 by a British investment syndicate - The British Automobile Commercial Syndicate Ltd (BACS). Gladiator was merged into the Cl�ment brand to become Cl�ment Gladiator. BACS collapsed and withdrew just one year later in 1897 but Cl�ment stayed as a director.

The Cl�ment 1 1/4hp (142cc) 'autocyclette' had an automatic inlet valve and overhead exhaust, it was marketed in Britain as the Cl�ment-Garrard. As an aside James Lansdowne Norton began in business producing licensed copies of Cl�ment cycle frames and the first Norton motorcycle, the 1902 'Energette' was built around the 1 1/4hp Cl�ment engine.

Cl�ment Gladiator 1905. image credit yesterdays.nl

The Cl�ment automobiles story in short

To further confuse the proliferation of Cl�ment brand names there is the story of Cl�ment cars which is worth a brief diversion. From 1898 the Cl�ment Gladiator company was producing cars, by 1902 more than 1000 a year were rolling out from the factory. These cars were marketed under both the Cl�ment brand and the Gladiator brand as well as Cl�ment Gladiator. Confusing, no? It does however get yet more convoluted...

The Cl�ment Gladiator automobile company was divided in 1902 between Cl�ment and Charles Chetwynd-Talbot who had been one of the original BACS investors and retained his share of the company. Chetwynd-Talbot took with him the newly formed British arm of the company whose cars became known as Cl�ment Talbots when produced from their London Factory. Within a year the British cars were known simply as Talbots. Despite the changes the Cl�ment and Gladiator brand names remained in production in France alongside Cl�ment Bayard.

On the split between Talbot and Cl�ment, Adolphe Cl�ment chose the new brand name of Cl�ment Bayard after a chevalier who saved the town of M�zi�res (where the Cl�ment Bayard factory was located) in 1521. At this point Cl�ment changed his name to Adolphe Cl�ment-Bayard.

Just a couple more quick asides on the Cl�ment automobiles story.....

From early 1906 a certain Herbert Austin managed to find finance to built Cl�ment Gladiator motorcars in Longbridge, England under the brand name of Austin.

Adolphe Cl�ment was also a director of Panhard Levassor and when in 1898 their supply struggled to meet demand, Cl�ment built licensed copies of the voiture l�g�re at his Levallois-Perret factory under the name of Cl�ment Panhard.

Wonderful Cl�ment advert from just before WW1.

Cl�ment the man

Gustave Adolphe Cl�ment was a true pioneer of the motor industry. 22 July 1894 he was a passenger in the winning car in the world's first motor race, the Paris Rouen. From 1904 Cl�ment Bayard began to produce racing cars of which he was a regular driver though outshone by his eldest child Albert Cl�ment who went on to lose his life in an accident during the practice for the 1907 French Grand Prix at Dieppe.

In 1878 Cl�ment began the production of Cl�ment pneumatic bicycle tyres. In 1889 he acquired the rights to produce the British Dunlop pneumatic tyres in France. This made him a millionaire and the Dunlop brand soon eclipsed his earlier Cl�ment brand.

Cl�ment later became involved in aeroplane and airship manufacture, he was a vociferous critic of German militarism in the run up to the First World War and a prominent anti-Dreyfusard post-war.

Further reading on Adolphe Cl�ment on wikipedia.

Gustave Adolphe Cl�ment taken c1907.

Maurice Fournier

Maurice Fournier (full name Maurice Ren� Alphonse Marie Fournier) was one of three brothers born to an engineering family, each of whom undertook an apprenticeship in their father's workshop. Each brother went on to become a noted figure in the very earliest days of motor racing and each began on tricycles and motorcycles and went on to race motorcars. Maurice was a prolific racer and in 1903 became 'Champion du Monde de Motocyclettes', this was presumably the World Champion of France title, though to be fair France was at the epicentre of early motor sport. Maurice was also noted for developing and riding the 'Fournier Buchet' 3 litre parallel twin monster race bike.

In 1911 Maurice was racing in the French Grand Prix at Le Mans (his town of birth) where he had an accident that led to both his death and the death of his mechanic, Georges Louvel. Maurice was 30 years old.

Maurice Fournier (driving) and Georges Louvel shortly before their fatal crash at the French Grand Prix 1911.

Parc des Princes

As the name suggests the Parc des Princes was an area of countryside on the fringes of Paris used by royalty for hunting and relaxation during the 18th century. As time went on the bourgeoisie took up these pursuits and with the growth in population of the city and popularity of leisure pursuits eventually a road was built through the Parc. 1897 is when the history of the Parc becomes relevant to this article for that is when a velodrome was built. By this time the Parc had become a multi-purpose sporting venue with athletics tracks, football and rugby pitches. The velodrome had a capacity of 3,200 seats and was exactly two thirds of a kilometer in length. Henri Desgrange, a co-owner of the velodrome, set up the Tour de France in 1903 and the finish line for le Tour was at the Velodrome through to 1967.

Equally of interest to this story is that there was a trail around the Parc that was used for motorcycle racing. Over the years as the popularity of the velodrome grew the capacity was increased up to 40,000 spectators. The velodrome was demolished in 1967 to make way for the P�ripherique ring road and the rubble from stadium was used to build the foundations of the Parc des Princes football stadium, home to Paris Saint-Germain.

A stayer (bicycle pacer) race at the Parc des Princes.

The below image is captioned as being taken just after victory in the Ostende Road Race of 1903. The machine however looks like a cycle pacer with its lack of brakes, extra frame at the rear and far set back seat with long handlebars. In the early days stayers (as cycle pacers are also known) took their powerplants from sporting machines in order to match the speeds of the cyclists. In later years as engines became more powerful so the stayers were fitted with large lazy, low tuned engines. The chap on the Cl�ment is leaning forward in a racing crouch for the photo rather than the upright stance of a stayer. Possibly stayer machines also saw service on the road in the early days it does seem more likely that this image is mis-captioned.

Cl�ment v4 bicycle stayer. Rider certainly unknown, location very much in doubt but usually given as Ostende.

A Cl�ment v4 racer with Fournier as rider and Adolphe Cl�ment on the left.

Cl�ment v4 bicycle pacer by a velodrome workshop.

Cl�ment v4 racer. Definitely 1500cc and not 2000cc. Possibly Fournier riding.

Albert Champion with a Cl�ment v4 visiting England for demonstration runs. The machine ran a mile in just under one minute.

Marius Th� with Cl�ment v4.