I've come across what I think is a late 80's/early 90's Torelli with Sachs componentry throughout. I don't know a thing about Sachs. Can someone give me a little history/value/quality comments on Sachs and whether it worth considering. Thanks for any info!

Sachs bought Huret, made Sachs/Huret in the 80's, then got bought by SRAM.

I have a set of Sachs "New Success" I'm going to use on an upcoming project.

Fitchel and Sachs, a French company is/was a comglomeration of various component comapnies. Huret (derailleurs), Maillard (hubs and pedal), Sedis (chains)and CLB (brakes) made up the comapny.

SRAM purchased Sachs from their German parent in 2001.

Sachs components were nothing special and always a year or 2 beihind industry titan Shimano. Sachs 'Ergopower' shifter/brake combination wasnt a Campy knock-off.....they were Campy.

1. Sachs (Fichtel !! and Sachs) is a german company, today they produce many parts for automobile industry (ZF Sachs AG)
2. In the 80s Sachs bought huret.
3. 1987 Mannesmann AG bought Sachs
4. 1997 SRAM bought a little part of Sachs, the "Sachs bicycle parts"

I think Sachs Components are very interesting and a good deal. The derailleurs from Sachs New Success have top quality and top finish like Dura Ace, the drivetrain was build by campa too (level of Athena/Chorus), the brakes came from Modolo.

https://charlys-space.de/forum/sachs.jpg

Firstly, Fichtel and Sachs is a german company who purchased many french component producers, which doesn't make them french

Secondly, i don't know how u can say sachs has nothing special and always behind shimano: if you had a little notion about history of bikes, u would know that if sachs wasn't german, or if germany had won WW1, or if they hadn't even started it (no matter how u turn it), they would now possess all patents about bikes:
in fact they just invented nearly EVERYTHING which is know used, from the internal gear hubs (which the famous english brand Sturmey Archer introduced in england, as the english economy refused to import german products) to the hydraulic disc brakes...
Their patents of course were all blown up with the treaty of Versailles (and later again after WW2), which nearly destroyed the brand...
The french component makers owned by Sachs also were high quality, especially Sedis chains which were in the 80's the chains with less friction loss world wide, and were mounted with the torpedo sachs 5 and 7 gears.

So it would be nice if u showed this company a little bit respect, even if it's now in the hands of american giant SRAM, who makes very good products by the way.

@ cpsqlrwn : your Torelli surely is a goof bike, and if u need sachs components of the time, i think SRAM produces some for old sachs users, so just get informed on their website.
=D

Hello Lida2, welcome to the forum! I think you'll find it a friendly place.

But the thread about Sachs components is over a year old, and I'm afraid the discussion has moved on to other things.

uh wow some Zombie thread.

^^
isn't it this why threads are for? anyone can reply at anytime, and people can see what we have posted years after!
maybe we'll be read in a hundred years time!

Thanks Lida & welcome to BF.
You'll find the first thing we are here for is to show pics.
Got any Sachs pictures?

What I know is there was Rival at the bottom end (I had a Gitane Prologue from that era with it) and I believe two levels above it. Supposedly, the higher levels were rebadged Campy although I don't know what models. Sachs offered an 8spd Ergo lever at one point on one or more high end groups. There were at least two groups on the moutain side. The mountain groups offered gripshifts in either shimano-spacing or their own (Campy perhaps?) I had been running a Neos RD on my beater until yesterday, when a pin fell out of the paralellogram. I thought it shifted well and looked a little better than all the Shimano/Suntour offerings of the early nineties.

I never really latched on the whole Sachs invasion/take over of the French stuff. It kinda diminished the whole french compnent "mystique"(?), as it put a Germanic spin to everyting all of the sudden. It was really weird to see such old French brands like Sedis, suddenly have "SACHS" stamped next to their name on thie chains and retail packaging and seeing Peugeots and othe French bikes sporting the Rival and New Success lines instead of the Simplex, Huret and Spidel components. Other than just Mavic, SACHS pretty much pulled in the French into indexed shifting (Simplex and Huret(?) didn't seem to have even given it a try), which set a start line from when SACHS took over. Been sometimes thinking of looking for a New Success group to maybe use on a late 80's early 90's French build, but I cannot get over SACHs not being a French company and can dilute the "Frenchness" of the build.
JMOs

Chombi

I had a Sachs Neos on the PX10 for a while. It shifts estremely well, but it's just too modern for the bike. I replaced it with a Suntour Vx-GT which also shifts extremely well.

You might rethink that ........campy is pretty special IMO.

Maybe, but when your post is complaining about someone else's two-year old post it seems kind of silly. Fortunately MiamiJim still posts here and can respond.

How about a scan?

I have what seems to be early campy ergo power brifter levers with the black resin (plastic?) lever body, inner shifter levers and thumb shifters, and they seem to be on the clunky/notchy side. Weighs a ton each too! But maybe I cannot completely put them down as they were still trying to figure the new system out at that time?? Kinda surrised to see so much of the black plastic material on a Campy component though (as I thought that was the domain of the French),.........and still weigh a like bricks!

Chombi

Anyone have a Richard Sachs with Sachs?

-Kurt

Golly gee,.....Modolo brakes sneaking into the party again!! Funny, they seem to have made a lot of those brakes for everyone but you can hardly find just the replacement pads/holders for them anymore.......
And do the Cranks have a bit of Shimano DA7400 look to them too??!
Hub shell shape looks very much like my Stronglight Deltas.......that's the thing with SACHS, you can't seem to pin down what they really look like. It's all sort of a mish mash group of compnents.
BTW, didn't EDCO also use the SACHS derailleurs in the later 80's/early 90's (Post Simplex).

Chombi

all of the sachs ergo levers i have seen were made by campagnolo but the shifters pivoted on bushings, not bearings. they are no where near as smooth. i also think the indexing was different as well.

I remember when this indexing sachs first came out. but being a struggling bike shop manager I could not afford a kit nor could I talk the boss into buying me one. I always thought it was nice stuff.

for what it is worth I have a pair of Rival shifters on my Sante equipped bike they work great!

From what I have read most of the French component makers that Sachs bought were about to go out of business due to the French bicycle business having gone down the tube at the time. If Sachs had not bought them they would likely have vanished anyway with the exception of Sedis chains.

As far as the old poster who claimed F&S, and other German companies, invented much of the modern bicycle this is only partly true. They did develop the first commonly used freewheel and a very early coaster brake. Per my understanding Sturmey Archer developed the 3 speed IGH a year or two before the Sachs version and there were several English 2 speed IGH units made before the SA 3 speed unit. American makers were also major innovators in the 1890s through early 1900s too.

For two reasons I'm posting to this to make it a zombie thread.

1. Because I agree with lida2, and it re-zombies the zombie that lida2 brought back to life.
2. Because I wanted to post a relevant link with some history to add to the debate that took place in this thread:

SACHS Rival components and cantilever brakes, before SRAM.

since its revived, I ride a bike with New success group and its great, at least as good as Ultegra. the shifters are Campy ergos, and they are sublime.

It sucks that the thread was bumped twice for some nebulous reason

Why?
To reinforce a stupid argument that the Germans invented everything about bikes AND David Hasselhoff and should have won both WWI and WWII on the strength of their spelling prowess?

Or to say that a company bought their way into making nice brakes?

Or because you're good and liquored up at 2AM and it seemed like a good idea at the time?

Where do I sign up for the liquor?

+1