Aha! maybe this is the time to finally resolve a question that has bugged me for years.
In Europe up to about 1983-ish I don't recall anything other than European manufacturers. For example, your commuter bike would have had a 3-speed Sturmey Archer gearbox inside the rear hub and your fancy road bike would have had Campagnolo (if you could afford it: they were infamously expensive).
And then out of (what seemed like) nowhere Shimano shows up with all these innovations. Index shifting, non-circular chainrings, cassette freewheels, 7-speed or more blocks.
Was there a reason that Shimano suddenly showed up in Europe with all these innovations?
In Germany, Fichtel & Sachs was big in this area. However, the two heirs of this company was Gunter Sachs and Ernst Wilhelm Sachs thought that maybe being a playboy, center of interest of tabloid and the jet-set was more worthwhile than doing a constructive role in the board. And later the AG (shareholder company) was sold and sold and sold. It belonged to Mannesmann (originally in steel, but later into telecoms), Bosch, Siemens, ZF ... Often, companies loose their identity in this process, as bookkeepers take over. Also, the buyers usually slaughter the company they bought to refinance their acquisition. As part of that the bike parts were sold to SRAM in 1997.
Fichtel & Sachs (actually Ernst Sachs) invented the "Rücktritt" (is that back pedalling brake in english?), bike freewheeling and the combination of this, the "Torpedo Freilaufnabe". That one was so good that it was one of the first things the chinese copy-cats replicated. Copying as the highest form of attribution ...
However, the company diversified quite early, e.g. they made "Wankel" motors, one cylinder motors, hitches, shock absorbers etc. By 1980 the bike parts were just a rounding error in their accounting --- partially also due to the high amount of the car industry in Germany, where they were a supplier. And still, they bought other bike part suppliers.
kjellsbells · · focus · HN ↗
In Europe up to about 1983-ish I don't recall anything other than European manufacturers. For example, your commuter bike would have had a 3-speed Sturmey Archer gearbox inside the rear hub and your fancy road bike would have had Campagnolo (if you could afford it: they were infamously expensive).
And then out of (what seemed like) nowhere Shimano shows up with all these innovations. Index shifting, non-circular chainrings, cassette freewheels, 7-speed or more blocks.
Was there a reason that Shimano suddenly showed up in Europe with all these innovations?
holgerschurig · · focus · HN ↗
Fichtel & Sachs (actually Ernst Sachs) invented the "Rücktritt" (is that back pedalling brake in english?), bike freewheeling and the combination of this, the "Torpedo Freilaufnabe". That one was so good that it was one of the first things the chinese copy-cats replicated. Copying as the highest form of attribution ...
However, the company diversified quite early, e.g. they made "Wankel" motors, one cylinder motors, hitches, shock absorbers etc. By 1980 the bike parts were just a rounding error in their accounting --- partially also due to the high amount of the car industry in Germany, where they were a supplier. And still, they bought other bike part suppliers.