Excellent topic!
I'd like to know approximately when Simplex augured in. Do they still exist as an entity making other products, were they subsumed by another manufacturer, or did they simply go away?
I think the case could be made that Stronglight and T.A. are still quite viable but obviously they aren't in the vanguard nor are specified by any mainstream bicycle manufacturers that I know. Mavic is obviously still hanging in there albeit with a reduced range of products.
Charlie Young
Honeybrook, PA
> New Subject: What caused the near total disappearance of the French
> Bicycle Component Industry? According to Jan, the French were way ahead
> of the Italians (and Japanese I guess) in the production of superior
> bicycle parts. So what happened?
>
> Incidently I own and ride lots of completely French bikes and have no
> illusions of the superiority of French Aerospace Engineers as bike parts
> designers (did someone from a "aerospace background" really design the
> Stronlight 49D crank in the mid-1930s?).
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> SoPas, SoCal