Jan Heine wrote:
(cut)
> In France, a lot of people came from an aerospace background into
> cycling and had a much better understanding of materials. The
> Stronglight 49D cranks were made almost unchanged between the
> mid-1930s and the mid-1970s...(cut)
New Subject: What caused the near total disappearance of the French Bicycle Component Industry? According to Jan, the French were way ahead of the Italians (and Japanese I guess) in the production of superior bicycle parts. So what happened?
Incidently I own and ride lots of completely French bikes and have no illusions of the superiority of French Aerospace Engineers as bike parts designers (did someone from a "aerospace background" really design the Stronlight 49D crank in the mid-1930s?).
Chuck Schmidt SoPas, SoCal
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