Thread: Bertin bike
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Old 06-17-19, 05:39 AM
  #13  
T-Mar
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Originally Posted by Bianchigirll
I don't understand why everyone calls a bike without a matching group from HS to cranks to hubs to toe straps a frankenbike. Until the late '80s only the top tier bikes tended to come with full groups right?

As juvela stated, frankenbike is used to refer to a bicycle which has replacement parts, just like Frankenstein's monster. It may or may not have had a component selection involving homogeneous branding and models.


However, to answer the 2nd part of your question, depending on your definition of what constitutes a group, homogeneously branded groups on mid-range and lower bicycles, pre-date the late 1980s. It is generally accepted that the mid-1970s Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport and Shimano 600 were mid-range groups. A case could argued for Shimano's 1981 Adamas AX being the an entry level group, as it contained derailleurs, shift levers, crankset, pedals, hubs, brakeset and even it;'s own saddle.


Most people consider the first component group to be mid-1950s Campagnolo Gran Sport, but it could even be argued that the component group dates back to the birth of the bicycle. At that time there were no component suppliers. The early bicycle companies were manufacturing most of the components themselves. By the time of the first bicycle boom, in the 1890s, most of the big manufacturers were offering bicycles with mostly proprietary components. I've had bicycles where the frame, forks, hubs, spokes, rims, crankset, pedals, brakes, headset, handlebars, stem and seat post were all manufactured in-house by the same bicycle company.


What did happen in the very late 1980s was the proliferation of groups. In the 1970s the price range between entry level and high end was relatively small for a full range manufacturer, typically $400-$500. A full product line could be handled with a relatively small selection of components. However, by the very late 1980s, the price differential between a bottom of the line and top of the line models had grown to well over $1000. As the differential grew, bicycle manufacturers added models, so as not to leave too a big a gap in price range jumps between models. Designers were creatively specifying bicycles and the non-savvy consumer was being confused by seeing the same derailleur being spec'd on bicycles that could be more than $100 apart. This was causing a lot of frustration for LBS sales personnel, who had to explain the differences.


The component manufacturers responded by introducing more component groups. Essentially, by creating a unique component group for each level, they alleviated consumer (and LBS) frustration. Even though there might be little difference between two or three groups, as long as they had unique group names, the consumer was placated. It made it much easier for the typical consumer to compare bicycles from Brand X and Brand Y.
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