Hi Jerry,
"Yes" to all your questions. Mike Spratt does also own some rights to the Motobecane name (don't know if he's got international in addition to US), he did head up Cycle World, and now has a chain of stores, mostly in Texas and Florida, called Cycle Spectrum.
Like Raleigh and Schwinn, there are now another two brand names that once had meaning and now are nothing special.
Cheers,
PB
Paul Brodek Hillsdale, NJ
On Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:29:47 -0500, "Jerry & Liz Moos"
<jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>I saw a few of these at a shop here in Houston. They are indeed TIG-welded
>in Taiwan, very similar to the current Motobecanes. Is Mike Spratt the same
>guy who owns the Motobecane name? Was it he who headed up the infamous
>World Cycles in the early 90's?
>
>Regards,
>
>Jerry Moos
>Houston, TX
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Paul C. Brodek" <pcb@skyweb.net>
>To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>; <OROBOYZ@aol.com>
>Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 12:09 AM
>Subject: Re: [CR]Mercier vs Mercian
>
>
>Mike Spratt/Cycle Spectrum now owns the rights to the Mercier name, at
>least in in the US (don't know about international rights) and is
>selling new Mercier-branded bikes in the US. I haven't looked closely
>at any of the new bikes, but I assume most are tigged frames out of
>Taiwan. All of the Mercier I saw on ebay today were new...
>
>Cheers,
>
>PB
Paul C. Brodek
Hillsdale, N.J. U.S.A.
E-mail: pcb@skyweb.net