I am a bit miffed in that I've been watching various Belgian sales/auction sites for 3+ years now to see if any Flandria and/or Superia top-of-the-line road bikes turn up for sale, and not one bike or frame has appeared.
Both Flandria & Superia sponsored major pro teams for many years and, to my knowledge, built their high-end team bikes in-house. Merckx was on the Superia team at one point and Freddy Maertens was on the Flandria team for many years, among many other well-known and successful pro riders. I know Flandria was basically an industrial conglomerate, also manufacturing & mktg a line of motorcycles, washing machines, clothes washers & dryers and I think home heating furnaces. Superia was a split-off company from Flandria, as the two brothers who ran Flandria had a falling out and legend has it that they split a Flandria factory in half, with one brother then starting Superia in the other part of the building.
But where are their high-end road bikes? Were they ever imported into the U.S.? Or were the pro teams basically just used to promote each company and it's numerous products, and high-end bikes were never really a focus of either Flandria and/or Superia? I am just really surprised that I have seen absolutely no such items for sale in Belgium.
Any comments? Any sightings? Any catalogs out there? Your consideration is appreciated & thanks.
Dave Patrick
Chelsea, Michigan