In a message dated 6/5/01 9:21:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jmoos@urc.com writes:
> BTW, does anyone know why so
> many French manufacturers sold bikes in the US under brands made up for this
> market, rather than under their own names? Did importers see some advantage
> in making up a name just for the US? Since one of the selling points of
> "ten-speeds" in the US was the European mystique, you would have thought the
> tradition of Stella, having been ridden by Louison Bobet and all, would have
> been good advertising copy in the US. Bikes "ridden by the great French
> champion Louison Bobet" would probably have impressed many American buyers
> at the time, even if they had never actually heard of Bobet before. Most
> bike boom buyers didn't realize their $125 UO-8 was quite different from the
> bikes the European racers rode. Maybe someone who was actually in the
> business at the time can explain why the French made up these export brands.
>
>
To protect the guilty? Preserve the rep of the quality nameplates?
They knew they were sending less than their best effort and didn't want a
bunch of gaspipe bikes running(or sitting) around with "good" names on them.
Pete Geurds
Douglassville, PA