Norris,
It's possible that Ron Kitching used different sources than Andre Bertin for their cast aluminum Milremo stems. Last year I bought a pair of cast Milremo stems with the red painted highlights on eBay.
They were supposed to be French sized but when I went to use them I found that they both had 22.2mm quills and 25.4mm bores. They were otherwise identical to the French size Milremo stems I had. I don't recall that those stems were available in inch sizes in the Bertin Milremo catalog so they probably came from Ron Kitching.
We used to import Milremo stuff from Bertin and there were quite a few things that they didn't share with Ron Kitching.
The French cast Milremo stems from the late 60s until at least 1975 that I've seen were most definitely made by Phillipe. A number of makes of French cast aluminum stems with the fake lugged design looked very similar.
The less expensive Bertin models that we brought in still came with those cast stems in 1975. For 1976 we requested that Bertin use the Cinelli style Atax stems with recessed expander bolts.
Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA USA
Norris Lockley wrote:
> I think that these were cast or possibly forged by either AVA or more likely
> PIVO, as the MILREMO top-of-the-range Grand Sport model is identical to the
> PIVO stems that Jacques Anquetil always used even when other more modern
> designs had entered the market.
>
> I have heard of more Cinelli srtems breaking than PIVO ones.
>
> Norris Lockley, Settle UK