The original Michelin man from 1894

I just saw this posted on Twitter and found it interesting.
“The original Michelin Man from 1894. He was is white because rubber tires are naturally white. It was not until 1912 that carbon chemicals were mixed into the white tires, which turned them black. The change was structural, not aesthetic. By adding carbon, tires became more durable. Michelin also began reviewing restaurants so that more people would travel further distances in their cars to eat at these restaurants. This, in turn, would wear down their tires faster and force them to buy more. The star system that Michelin uses goes up to three and is broken down by whether or not it's worth driving to the restaurant: One star: "A very good restaurant in its category" (Une très bonne table dans sa catégorie) Two stars: "Excellent cooking, worth a detour" (Table excellente, mérite un détour) Three stars: "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey" (Une des meilleures tables, vaut le voyage).”

 

Is he on roller skates and smoking a cigar?

 

Nah, that’s the fat chick working at the drive-in.

 

That dude could go anywhere now-a-days and fit the new norm.

 

They also print road books to tell people where to travel to, and even helped pioneer road signs and things like that. I was lucky enough to be the guest of Michelin over to Spain and France to see their test track facility and one of the factories that makes motorcycle tires. The museum is incredible and it’s pretty crazy how influential they have been since the beginning of automobiles. Hell they even made pneumatic train tires haha!

 

He's gone through a lot of changes. I looked them up once when we were selling Michelins, He got scary looking for awhile, I thinkin the 20's. I prefer the cigar smoking, champagne drinking, womanizing version of the Michelin man.

 

This one?

 

I understand Michelin still does the food / restaurant rating thing, for high-end stuff, I believe?

 

His name was (and still is) the "Bibendum", as displayed in the picture posted by Spooner. "Nunc est bibendum" means "now is the time to drink" in latin and was Michelin's motto. Associating driving with drinking would nowadays be considered a bad marketing move, me thinks lol

 

I remember reading in highschool that the nazis left the Michelin factories alone as they also got their tires from them.

 

The allies bombed the Metzeler factory flat in WW2. So they had to find rubber somewhere

 

Used to see these attached to the cabs of trucks (Lorries, to be precise) a lot when I was stationed in England.

 

Don’t forget his sidekick Bibelobis.

 

That's it. The really creepy years.

 

for sure, the later and current bib man is much more appealing and less fukin scary, than some of the original and earlier versions ! LOL

 

Love those vintage Bib posters...... so cool.

He was caught mocking me at a rider's meeting......

 

I posted this Bib buck I found a few weeks ago… the happy fat bastard always made me smile or I’d have never tried the tires… I just wanted to run the stickers

 

Anyone remember Ron Wood tell the story of how Colonel Sanders was Michelin’s first salesman and all his driving and looking for fried chicken on the road gave him the idea for KFC?

 

If that’s true it would be fascinating.

 

Bibman and his apprentice get ready to run the oven at Auschwitz.