About Ebykr
Ebykr celebrates classic and vintage lightweight bicycles through provoking imagery and opinion. Let's roll together!
About Ebykr
Ebykr celebrates classic and vintage lightweight bicycles through provoking imagery and opinion. Let's roll together!
Great item on Stronglight….the big plus for me in the Sixties and Seventies was the inner ring. Campag’s smallest was 44, whilst Stronglight manufactured 38: more more sensible!
[…] translates to fast and expensive in most every language worldwide. Just ask the good people over at Stronglight, who have known this since at least 1933 when parent company Haubtmann merged with Verrot Perrin, […]
[…] makers from cycling’s golden era that remain popular today – Ideale, JOS, Maxi-Car and Stronglight, to name a few – surprisingly little is known about the Lefol marque given the timeless […]
I`ve read few of articles on your blog and could say it was really interesting, thanks for sharing that.
Salut,
A very interesting insight into this company.
I am currently restoring a very old French “racing” bicycle which I believe is a Peregrine. I also believe that the chainwheel / cranks / axle are by Stronglight and most likely are of the early 1900’s vintage. The LH crank is very discreetly stamped Perfecta. The cranks are not cottered but are held in place with a long bolt passing through a splined split axle and a splined sleeve to give correct alignment.
The nickel-plated threaded chainring is held against the RH crank with a locknut. Each stub split axle is scewed [?] into the crank and the ends of both stub axles are cleverly machined to locate one against the other. The very wide cups are screwed into the bottom bracket as normal [ locked in place by a small cotter pin ]
This arrangement is brilliantly designed and engineered – as French bicycles usually were one hundred years ago – and were an early “cotterless” crankset design.
I have restored many bicycles from the UK, USA and France, but I have never come across this particular arrangement before – and I’m very impressed !
“bien cordialement”
you did an interesting report.
one remark : you mention StrongLight’s birthplace as “a little village”, which is funny because St Etienne has a population of ~200 000 p. right now, and has been known in the country for its mining and also metal industry…specially bikes.
[…] When first writing Stronglight for information about the company, I received a charming and curious response. My requests had included, naturally, a timeline, a list of events the company sees as particularly important in its history, the position the company sees itself occupying in the present and future of cycling, a bit about its marketing practices, and an explanation of why a French company has an English name. […]