Re: [CR]Flandria and Superia history..

(Example: Framebuilding:Norris Lockley)

From: "Angel Garcia" <veronaman@comcast.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <002701c4df19$95fb5730$fb0e8751@oemcomputer>
Subject: Re: [CR]Flandria and Superia history..
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 20:10:28 -0500


The new owners of the Flandria brand is: Flandria Bikes, Unit 2, Yard 5, Richard's Street, Kirkham, Lancashire, England, PR4 2HU Telephone: +44 1772 672 444 . Perhaps someone in England can jingle them and find out what the story is. Their website, http://www.flandriabikes.com/, has a history section which also refers to "Superior"; I suspect cyclingsnews.com obtained their info from there. At this point, I also suspect, that only few people might know that it was really Superia as Norris indicates. Of course, some New Yorkers might say Superia for Superior....

Angel Garcia, born and raised in Manhattan.... Long Valley, NJ ------------------- snip: It was interesting to read Angel Garcia's contribution about Flandria and Superia bikes from Belgium It took me back to some halcyon days spent in that wonderful country, visiting some of the small builders and then.. every two years the Brussels bike show, held in an incredible glass-roofed arched hangar of a building, just by the famous Atomium monument.. and not far from an equally famous ( to some people) monument to cycling - Eddy Merckx's workshops.

I'm not too sure if there was a spelling mistake in the original textt Angel from which Angel was quoting but the "Superior" brand was in fact "SUPERIA". Just as Flandria will always be remembered for their bright red and chrome frames so no one will easily forget the dark ink-blue of the top Superias, with their white transfers. A few years ago when the Coppi brand was relaunched.. the manufacturer produced a top-level frame with virtually the same finish as the Superia as did Colnago for one of the Dutch Pro teams in the early 90s. Sheer class !

As for current day Flandrias.. I am not sure that the account in "Cycling News" is 100% correct. A s far as I know there is no company in the UK that has bought out the rights to that brand.. and it is unlikely that anyone is manufacturing them over here. In the early 80s I met a Belgian, Wim Van den Sande, at the Paris Show, who was a director of a wholesaler based at Herzele, near Ghent, trading as STAR Imports. At the time I was promoting a very dynamic French brand -GELIANO - and Wim had taken a fancy to the extensive and beautifully built and sprayed frames..

Norris Lockley... thinking about Belgian (French) fries and mayonnaise.. the essential diet of the all Belgian supporters of the northern springtime Classics.. Settle, UK