Jan- Most of what you mention rings true with my experience, limited as it is. More specifically, I always understood that FB was a contract manufacturer to Campy. Furthermore, I understood that FB, (and maybe Gnutti) were the only companies that produced hubs while Campy still had patent rights, i.e., these were the only companies manufacturing and selling Campy-copy quick-release hubs under a royalty agreement with Campy. However, I should mention that I was not alive during that time period, so all I have learned from that era has been through word-of-mouth, much like yourself with Alex Singer's shop. Cheers, Save Anderson Cut Bank MT
In message date 6/4/03 10:17 AM PST, heine@mindspring.com writes: A while ago, I suggested that Campagnolo may have bought FB (the hub maker). Recently, I asked Ernest Csuka, of Cycles Alex Singer, who had mentioned this initially. He believes that sometime around the late 1940s, after the three-piece Campagnolo hubs came out, FB was bought by Campagnolo outright. However, the details are sketchy. Ernest believes that the hubs labeled Campagnolo were made in the FB factory, but after Campagnolo bought them. When I pointed out that FB also appears to have made hubs for other companies with their names, he was not surprised. Clearly, for Singer, what counted was that they bought the hubs, and that they remained relatively unchanged. The check went to FB (in France - their factory there, which, according to Ernest, later became the French distribution center for Campagnolo), but whether they were owned by Campagnolo or not didn't really matter.
Having raised the issue initially, I just wanted to provide this update. Does anybody else have more/precise information? Jan Heine, Seattle