snip<What got Stronglight started and what kept them alive?> Don,
I would think the model 49D got the ball rolling, and the momentum was s ufficient to keep it going a long time. Not that I was there, but it has been that way for me as well. The 49D is essential to me, most of my ma chines are of that era. Subsequently I have some 1970s machines and newe r models of Stronglight chainset remain attractive options. But the 49D was the initial attractor. I note that the 49D appeared on the scene in booming times of expansion for cycling in general, even if that was prim arily in Europe. It rode a crest and then the long tail of the wave as w ell--long enough to greet the early '70s 'bike boom,' whereupon the bato n could be handed to those other, numerically higher, models.
Don't discount the headsets! They must have been a significant source of income for Stronglight all the way through. What kept them alive is that the equipment is both strong AND light. ;-)
Tom Ward
Brooklyn, New York -- USA (but born a few miles south of UCSD...)
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