Adolphe Clément-Bayard

Tyre manufacturing

Dunlop In 1889, Clément saw a Dunlop pneumatic tyre in London and acquired the French manufacturing rights for 50,000 francs. This success led to his millionaire status. Dunlop France, and occasionally Clément-Dunlop, was a regular entrant of motor racing and cycle racing teams.

Clément Pneumatics

Clément is reported to have begun manufacture of Clément Tyres in 1878 to fit to the early cycles, but the French identity was lost with the overwhelming success of his Dunlop pneumatics. After World War I, Clément Pneumatics was established in Italy and was a leading supplier of Clément Pneumatici bicycle tyres throughout much of the 20th century. A leading international manufacturer during the 1950s,1960s and 1970s, it was associated with racing cyclists such as Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, and Ole Ritter. It was purchased by Pirelli in the 1980s and manufacturing was moved to Thailand until 1995 when Pirelli vacated the bicycle tyre market. Various licensing arrangements were of little consequence until, in 2010 the name was licensed to Donnelly Sports and the American, Don Kellogg, who recommenced manufacture in Thailand.

Motor manufacturing

Clément-Gladiator motorcars By 1898, the new Clément-Gladiator company was building cars and marketing them as both Cléments and Gladiators.

In 1922, the Clément-Bayard company was sold to André Citroën, in whom Clément also invested financially, and the factory at Levallois-Perret was the centre of 2CV manufacturing for the next 40 years. and used a tubular chassis, centre-pivot steering, near-horizontal rear-mounted engine with automatic inlet valve and hot-tube ignition, driving through a constant-mesh gear-train, and final drive by side chains; early models had no reverse gear.

Clément-Stirling and Stirling-Panhard

Some Clément-Panhards were exported to Great Britain, where they were variously sold as Clément-Stirling and Stirling-Panhard, by the Scottish coachbuilder Stirling.

Clément Motor Company (Britain)

In 1906, Clément set up the Clément Motor Company in Coventry, England, to build Gladiators under licence. It used the motto "Simply Clément, nothing else" to avoid confusion with Clément-Talbots, which by then were known only as Talbots. ) and 1914. The company is recorded as Clément Motor company Ltd., Coventry, Warwickshire.

Paris–Berlin Trail Clément was classified 20th in the 1901 Paris–Berlin Trail. Driving Panhard number 18, he completed the event in 21 hours 53 minutes and 38 seconds.

Clément-Bayard

Clément started building automobiles in 1903 and then started building racing cars in 1904. The racing team included Albert Clément, Jacques Guders, Rene Hanriot, Marc-Philippe Villemain, 'Carlès', "De la Touloubre" and A. Villemain, and Pierre Garcets.

Albert Clément won the II Circuit des Ardennes des Voiturettes on 24 July 1904 at Bastogne in 4h 26m 52.6seconds, at an average speed of 53.91 km/h.

At the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island, Clément drove an 80-hp Clément-Bayard (France #12) but suffered reliability problems. Punctures were common and Michelin introduced a detachable rim, saving 11 minutes over manually replacing the tyre. This enabled Felice Nazzaro (FIAT) to take second place from Clément.

Albert Clément finished 6th in the V Circuit des Ardennes on 13 August 1906 at Bastogne. He completed the 7 lap 961 km race in 6 hours 2 minutes 55.2 seconds in a 100Hp Clément-Bayard. His team-mates A. Villemain and Pierre Garcet finished 11th and 12th.

1907 season Albert Clément died while practising for the 1907 French Grand Prix on 17 May. Of the three other Clément-Bayard entries, Pierre Garcet and Elliott Shepard, finished seventh and eighth respectively. Clément's car was entered by 'Alezy', who retired after four laps.

Other events In 1905, Clément-Bayard won the Coupe de Calais and 'finished well' at the Course de Dourdan. In both 1907 and 1908, Clément-Bayard won the Coupe de l'Automobile-Club de Cannes, and in 1908, it also won the Tour de France Automobile.

In November 1912, The Clément-Bayard Monoplane No. 5 was introduced. It was powered by a Gnome rotary engine which had 7 cylinders and produced . The pilot sat in an aluminium and leather tub.

Airship manufacture

Clément-Bayard Airship No 1, The "Adjudant Vincenot", c. 1910. Caption from Popular Mechanics magazine, 1910.

In 1908, Astra Clément-Bayard began manufacturing airships at a new factory in La Motte-Breuil in response to a French Army decision to commence airship operations.

The Clément-Bayard No.1 airship was offered to the French government but was too expensive so it was bought by Tsar Nicholas II for the Russian army.

In 1910, the Clément-Bayard No.2, piloted by Maurice Clément-Bayard, was the first airship to cross the Channel, travelling over 380 km in 6 hours. Shortly after the purchase of Gladiator cycles in 1896 Adolphe Clément began to build the new factory at Levallois-Perret in north west Paris. This produced cycles and various cars from 1898, (Clément-Panhard, Clément-Gladiator from 1901, Clément-Bayard from 1903), and went on to build various Citroën models including the Citroën 2CV for nearly forty years from 1948 to 1988. From August 1914 it was dedicated to wartime production. On 11 October 1902, Clément-Talbot was formally incorporated, and subsequently of land was purchased for a new factory in Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington in west London, between the Great Western Railway line and the 'Edinburgh road' before it was renamed 'Barlby road'. The factory was a high status operation whose brick workshops used the latest saw-tooth roof line, glazed to maximise natural light. It was equipped with the most modern machine tools and the reception area was laid out like a miniature palace, marble Ionic order, gilded frescoes and stained glass windows etched with the Shrewsbury coat of arms. It is now known as 'Ladbroke Hall'.

Gallery Pdf about Adolphe Clément-Bayard, (French) containing 95 images, posters and diagrams of cycles, cars, planes, airships, houses and factories. Flickr, Description and image of Clément-Talbot works at Ladbroke Grove Internal image of 'Ladbroke Hall', once the Clément-Talbot works at Ladbroke Grove