Re:
On our side of the channel, the Tevano crankset is also pretty rare
but I would say not very much sought after too :idea:
Possibly just because of its rarity and not really related to other components.
It is actually amusing to see that in the 70's no french company managed to manufacture a whole groupset and as Old Ned said , it was not really a wish of racers to have every part coming from the same company and I believe not even campgnolo offered its group as a whole ?
Now the fad is more towards full "groupsets". So Mavic in the 80's was really the only french company to go and succeed on that strategy ( even if some parts were actually tagged but subcontracted to other companies such as Modolo for the brakes)
On most upmarket roadracing french machines of the time in the 70's , if you did not find the campa nuovo record group, you would see mostly Stronglight cranksets coupled either with Simplex SLJ mechs or Huret Jubilee stuff.
Brakes tended to be Mafac Racers until quite late often even on top of the range - remember the Peugeot of Thevenet :idea: - then superseded by CLB light brakes rather than Mafac single pivot brakes
Huret is actually the only company that tried to emulate a group with its own huret tag in the 70's but clearly did not succeed. Probably because it was certainly expensive.
The crankset was actually buit by Nervar, the brakes by CLB, the hubs were rebadged high flange Alpin
(I am in the process of building a full french machine as light as possible from the 70's ) and still hesitates on the group to put on - its going to be either this huret group or a mix of french stuff but the Tevano crankset was not in my mind as it is pretty rare to see it on french machines of that time.
But as Shaun said , Tevano was probably more an attempt to grab sales if you wanted the campa look ( but not a downmarket repro as the price tag showed and TA never sold cheaply its stuff :roll: ) but also enter the roadracing segment
as, strangely enough, TA was very much regarded in the "cyclotourisme" segment so all upmarket randonneuses of that time had to have a TA and Stronglight was considered a lesser alternative but on racing machines, you will hardly see a TA crankset. The Tevano was also probably an attempt to gain a foothold in that segment; surfing on the "campa wave" :idea:
Classic lightweights mentions 1979 as the first year of production :idea:
Would be interesting to see the price differences between these choices at that time ???
Ned that would be ace if you could show what the catalog says for other cranksets such as the "cyclo" TAs or the Campa SR, the Stronglights ?
here you'll find a few pics and docs about the Tevano crankset
http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/tevano/Interesting
it is amusing because I just bought a bike with Supervitus 971 framekit, CLB Professional light brakes , a tevano crankset, and wheels on high flange Pelissier 2000 hubs. So an example of the mix of different companies but with this rare tevano crankset :idea:
More info edited
French specialists wonder also where the name comes from !
it is quite possible or even probable that it could be a italianized anagram of 'Navet' with an O at the end :idea:
as a Monsieur "Navet" was actually the founder of Specialités TA in 1947 ( by the way - Herse crankset were apparently subcontracted to them ) :idea: