1920s Terrot Lady’s Bicycle
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A BRIEF HISTORY of TERROT
Terrot,
2 rue André-Colomban
DIJON
Terrot was once France’s largest motorcycle manufacturer but also has an important place in French bicycle history.
Like many other future bicycle/motorcycle companies, Charles Terrot already had a manufacturing company. His factory made knitting machines. With advances in bicycle design in the late 1880s, he added his own innovations, filing, in 1890, a patent bracket with two speeds. His first catalogue was published in 1893 and he introduced a chainless cycle with gears. In 1910 the first derailleur was designed and added to Terrot bicycles.
Terrot advertising was prolific, from the early years until the end, in the 1950s. The Terrot VMS scooter (from 1955 renamed the Scooterrot) was the most-advertised scooter of the many French makes available. Many old Terrot adverts have been reproduced as posters, to provide a wonderful glimpse into transport history of the past 100 years.
Terrot absorbed the company Magnat Debon in the 1920s and was itself taken over by Peugeot in the late fifties. Peugeot retained the Terrot badges on bicycles for several years after the takeover, as you can see in the pictures of my 1957 Ladies Terrot on this same website.
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