Foreign market translators, it sounds like. I used to break out laughing while reading some 1970 Japanese motorcycle service manuals. Straying OT here, but currently there's a Taiwan firm, presumeably making knock-off parts, that calls themselves "Sameness". This company is growing, btw. Robust is probably some previously un-trademarked name they found in a dictionary of translations. UO-8's were robust in many ways, just not quite all the right ones! Don't get me wrong, I love my '73 UO-8, but it's spokes and derailer clamp have proven especially fragile. Maybe if the makers of the Robust had given their export a French-sounding name they'd still be on the market, or... ...maybe not.
David Snyder Auburn, CA USA
Don Wilson wrote:
> Hi, I'm staring at an old french bike from St. Etienne
> called a Robust that I know is junk, but which I could
> not resist because of the sheer absurdity of the name
> and the one dollar price tag. What the heck is a BF
> stem (no off color brand name jokes please). Bike is
> omparable quality to Peugeot UO-8 or a Mercier 100.
> Bike boom vintage. Anyone ever hear of one? How could
> anyone, even the French, name a bike a "Robust"? What
> market niche were they aiming at? That small group of
> nationality-confused dorm rats that wanted a UO-8 with
> an English sounding name? Help me, help me, help me, I
> think I'm going insane from bicycle collecting. :-)
>
> Don "I never met a French bike for a dollar that I
> could refuse" Wilson
> Los Olivos, CA