Französische Fahrradmarken (Tabelle): Unterschied zwischen den Versionen
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Version vom 23. Juni 2020, 08:00 Uhr
The following is a list of some French bicycle brands that I have come across,
with scattered information about them.
I welcome additions and corrections.
| Marke | Bemerkung |
|---|---|
| Astra | Beacon Cycle house brand, made by Motobécane |
| Automoto | Older, high end brand, rarely seen in the U.S. Like most other major French marques, headquartered in St. Étienne, east of Paris. l902-1965 |
| Bertin | Better-than-average '70's bikes. |
| Louison Bobet | Good bikes in their day,('60's-'70's). Distributed by Cyclopedia.
Named after a great French racer. |
| Dilecta | Very fine old touring tandems, with a logo very similar to the Vietnamese flag. |
| Follis | Decent brand, especially known for tandems. |
| Flandria | Actually Belgian, not French. Most Flandrias seen in the U.S. were low-end bike-boom clunkers, some of them made in Portugal. |
| Ginay | Low end bike-boom line. Jeunet sound-alike |
| Ginet | Low end bike-boom line. Jeunet sound-alike |
| Gitane | Major brand. Jacques Anquetil and Greg Lemond used to race on Gitanes. |
| Gnôme Rhône | Primarily an aircraft engine maker, which also built bicycles in the '50's. I had one when I lived in France. It had aluminum main tubes held into steel lugs by rivets. |
| René Herse | The pinnacle of French cycling, specializing in top-of-the-line custom and semi-custom touring bikes; extremely valuable.
The image above is a Daniel Rebour illustration of a René Herse "Camping" model. The brand has been revived by a bicycle maker in Boulder, Colorado, USA. |
| Jeunet | Good quality bike-boom models. |
| La Perle | Jacques Anqueteil and I both used to own La Perles. I gave mine to my sister. I don't know what he did with his. Mine was 531, with sidepull brakes, tubulars, Titan bar and stem... |
| LeJeune | Good quality singles and tandems. |
| Look | Current maker of very high-tech carbon fiber frames, and clipless pedals. |
| Lapierre | Based in Dijon, full line manufacturer, made some high-end racing bikes, but most Lapierres seen in the U.S. are generic low-end bike-boom machines. |
| Mel Pinto | Virginia-based importer/wholesaler, formerly imported Gitane bikes to the U.S., also sold a rather nice tandem under the Mel Pinto name, reportedly made by Urago. |
| Mercier | Major Peugeot competitor in the '70's.
The model 100 was very similar to the Peugeot UO-8; the 300 was comparable to the PX-10 The Mercier trademark has been revived, but the current production "Merciers" from the Far East have no connection with France aside from the name. |
| Motobécane/MBK | One of the largest manufacturers of bicycles and motorcycles.
"Moto" is French for motorcycle; "bécane" is French for "bike". After bankruptcy, the company was reconstituted as MBK (pronounced "em-bay-kah.") The Motobécane trademark has been revived, but the current production "Motos" from the Far East have no connection with France aside from the name. |
| OTB | "Only The Best"; private label of Charlie Hamburger, Boston bike maven and dealer of the '40's and '50's. Hamburger was reputedly a fanatic for quality, who would disassemble freewheels to add more bearing balls. He was reputed to have been the first to import Campagnolo parts to the U.S. Some OTBs were reputedly made by René Herse, others high-end Peugeots. I own a 1957 OTB, supposedly the last that he sold when he closed the shop. It is made of Vitus tubing, and has the skinniest seat stays I have ever seen. |
| Peugeot | The Goliath of the French bicycle industry. Maker of automobiles, bicycles and pepper grinders.
In the '70's bike boom, the $87.50 UO-8 was the hot model for the hoi polloi: carbon steel frame, steel rims & handlebars, Mafac brakes, Normandy large flange quick-release hubs, Simplex Prestige derailers. The UO-8 (and the mixte version UO-18) had the lowest gearing of stock bikes at that time, thanks to the 52/36 chainwheel set. Contemporary with the UO-8/UO-18 were the UE-8 and the mixte UE-18. These were set up as touring bikes, with full fenders, brazed-on rear rack, generator lighting system with brazed-on mount. Unaccountably, this model, which was made of the same materials as the UO-8 and shared most components, had close-ratio gearing, making it much less useful than it could have been. The deluxe bike-boom Peugeot was the PX-10, all Reynolds 531, Nervex lugs, Mavic tubular rims, Normandy Luxe Competition hubs, Brooks Professional saddle, Stronglight 93 cotterless cranks. [This model was fine for racing but notorious for speed wobble if carrying a load on a rear rack -- John Allen] The top-of-the-line model was the PY-10. Here's a reminiscence from Lyle Rooff: I sold a couple of those when I owned a bike store in the late 1970's and early 80's. It was quite different from any other model, having not only an all-531DB frame and fork, but included gold-anodized Mafac brakes and a few other components not found on production bikes. Getting them into the shop was a different experience, as well. It came fully assembled in a box resembling a piano crate, requiring only that we turn the handlebars straight and inflate the tires for it to be ready to ride. They were, in all respects, identical to the bikes used by the factory team. See also: RetroPeugeot.com Jim Ruggieri's Cycles Peugeot Site The PX-10 Database John Everett's PX-10 page Collection of Dutch Peugeot catalogues |
| St. Étienne | A mid-range marque. The city of St. Étienne was for many years the capitol of the French bicycle industry. |
| St. Tropez | An undistinguished low-end marque. Some of these are Taiwanese, not French. The bottom of the barrel. |
| Alex Singer | Close runner-up to René Herse for top honors as high-end microbrewer. There is some dispute as to whether the name should be pronounced in the French or English fashion. |
| Stella | |
| Terrot | Older, high end brand, rarely seen in the U.S. |
| Urago | A high quality brand from the south of France. |
| Velosolex | Made both bicycles and weird front-wheel drive mopeds, as well as being a major manufacturer of carburetors. As of 2010, the name has been revived for electrically-powered mopeds which mimic the appearance of the old ones. |
| Vitus | Vitus was a long-standing maker of high-quality frame tubing. In the '80's they popularized glued aluminum frames, which were very light and quite popular with lighter riders. |
