Who campaigned relentlessly for geared bikes, favoring the derailleur over hub gears, writing as "Vélocio"?
Answer
Paul de Vivie
Paul de Vivie, known by his pen name "Vélocio," was the primary philosophical driver behind the derailleur's survival during its difficult early stages. Despite the existing mechanisms being awkward and unreliable, Velocio strongly believed that geared bikes were the future of cycling. He actively advocated for the derailleur mechanism over internal hub gears, perceiving the derailleur as offering greater flexibility and robustness for terrain changes. He even formed a group, *l’École Stéphanoise*, dedicated to testing multi-geared prototypes, and tested his own two-speed derailleur, *Le Cyclist*, in 1905.
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