by velocollective | Aug 15, 2017 | Vintage Bike Parts, Vintage French Bike Parts
Stronglight 93, 49D, 104, 105 Cranksets I’d prefer a drilled Stronglight 105 crankset on my bike to Campagnolo Super Record, though many would disagree with me. The great imitators of the day, Shimano, also made a very desirable crankset, the lovely 600...
by velocollective | Aug 11, 2017 | Repair Tips, Vintage Bike Parts
Flaws and Failures Even the smartest companies make mistakes. The day Lucien Juy decided to make plastic parts for his derailleurs must count as one of the bike industry’s biggest mistakes. The founder of Simplex, who was a great innovator in bike...
by velocollective | Jun 21, 2017 | Vintage French Bike Parts
Moving the Masses The Huret Allvit was a workmanlike transmission set and could never be described as inspiring or beautiful. It was mass produced for millions of cheap bikes in the 1970’s, including my own first bike as a kid. From the big French...
by velocollective | Jun 17, 2017 | Vintage French Bike Parts
The Derailleurs Back in 1978 you had a good choice of Simplex rear derailleurs, but here we see two of them from that year in very different conditions. The better derailleur, as one would expect, has survived the years of service much better than its cheaper...
by velocollective | May 8, 2017 | Bike Histories
The Final Throw of the Dice Things looked bad for the French bike parts industry. The year was 1984, and the market was rapidly changing; the reign of French components, once so dominant in the bike boom, was now being eroded by competition from...
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