About Ebykr
Ebykr celebrates classic and vintage lightweight bicycles through provoking imagery and opinion. Ride along with us.
About Ebykr
Ebykr celebrates classic and vintage lightweight bicycles through provoking imagery and opinion. Ride along with us.

Bayliss-Wiley Co. Ltd. was a highly respected designer and manufacturer of bicycle components for nearly a full century, ahead of its time as inventor of the world's first cassette hub in 1938 and bespoke supplier to British cycling and automotive companies alike. This timeline traces its corporate lifecycle through motorcar production and changes of ownership to its 1969 fade into Renold Chains Ltd.

This feature article provides an unprecedented visual window into the industrial soul of the Idéale brand, presenting rare archival photographs of the F. Tron & Cie and Tron & Berthet facilities and the generations of artisans who defined them. The images trace the company's journey from its hydraulic roots at a former wool mill to the height of its mid-century power.

The history of Idéale is a century-long narrative of industrial perseverance and technical mastery that transformed a modest Parisian stamping workshop into the emblematic brand of the French saddle. Founded in 1890 by Jean-François Tron, this timeline traces its pursuit of extreme lightness through Duralumin and Titanium chassis and its racing pedigree under Marcel Berthet.

Idéale saddles remain among the least understood classic bicycle components given their standout prominence and frequent exorbitant value. This feature unpacks the dizzying array of models produced under the Idéale marque, 82 and counting, and the collapsing French cycling industry that nearly ended the brand before its recent revival.

A reference guide to the Idéale saddle and clip lineup, covering model number, category, top material, rail material, size, weight and technical notes for dozens of historic models. Use this table to identify, compare and date saddles from the Idéale catalog.

Key Events from the Company To capture the essence of Mavic is to look beyond individual patents and witness a century-plus cadence of innovation that has pulsed through the heart of Lyon since 1889. While our broader retrospective explores the…

The Golden Age of the Yellow Diamond: A Mavic Retrospective To the enthusiast of classic lightweight and vintage bicycles, few component makers evoke as much prestige and technological reverence as Mavic. Familiarity, too. Established in Lyon, France, in 1889, the…

MAFAC’s story is that of a specialist brake innovator facing the rise of integrated groupsets. For 20 prosperous years, MAFAC filled a crucial gap by creating brakes—like the pioneering Criterium cantilever and revolutionary Racer center-pull models—that were revolutionary in their…

Introducing MAFAC In the historical archive of classic lightweight and vintage bicycles, some components get relegated to lowly footnote status, while others stand tall as towering monuments to engineering achievement. Among the latter, the name MAFAC—an acronym derived from the…

The job of a bicycle designer parallels that of a surgeon in many senses: triage what’s wrong, decide what no longer functions, find a way to solve the problem and repair or replace whatever needs fixing. And like any good…