Norris Lockley wrote:
> The Spidel component group was a near to a groupset as the French
> cycle
> accessory industry ever got, although there was an attempt,
> basically by
> Simplex some years later - the Stratec group -and just before they
> finally went bankrupt.
>
> traditionally most French cycle accessory manufacturers were
> specialists
> in more or less one accessory eg Mafac in brakes, Stronglight in
> chainsets, Simplex in gears. Faced with the growing impetus of other
> manufacturers such as Shimano and Campagnolo towards producing full
> groupsets, a group of French manufacturers, none of whom had the
> manufacturing capacity or the know-how to produce its own groupsets,
> decided to coordinate their efforts into a top-end French groupset
> - the
> SPIDEL range being the result.
> The companies involved were Simplex, Stronglight, Mafac, Maillard
> (freewheels, hubs and pedals) To a lesser extent Ideale was marginally
> involved as was Super Champion. I think Modolo became involved when
> Mafac went bust. I have two Peugeot team bikes from 1979/79 - Regis
> Delapines's 753 Pro bike, and Jean-Louis Danguillaume's 531 Pro model.
> The specs are almost identical except for the brakes, - Delapine
> chose
> the Mafac side-pull type already mentions..much like a Modolo, while
> Danguillaume chose the Mafac centre-pulls with the brazed on studs,
> like
> Thevenet used. Danguillaume was faithful to Maillard's small flange
> 700
> series hubs, but Delapine was allowed to use....Campag L/f Record
> ones.
>
> There was another French grouping involving Huret, Nervar, Perrin
> Pelissier and CLB, but this one never managed to attract the top
> riders
> to use their products. Possibly this was something to do with
> sponsorship deals..certainly Hinault won the Tour once on Spidel
> components..but using Ambrosio rims!
>
> I think that the SPIDEL partnership and groupset was launched around
> 1981
>
> Norris Lockley Settle UK
Great post Norris! I don't think the launch date was around '81 for the SPIDEL group and partnership though... my 1979 PY10CP team Peugeot had a little "Spidel" sticker stuck on each Stronglight crank arm when I unpacked my bike.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
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