The more knowledge I obtain makes me realise how much I don't know. Always more questions than answers, no bad thing.
Wanted to come back to this old buddy. For several reasons. Usual disclaimer at this time of evening .....
As always ..... bear / bare / baar with me.
I think proper research in an historical context I would argue France is rather good - and no offence to any French reading this - due to it's somewhat rather precise bureaucratic nature. Our resident
@grantoury historian is invaluable in the process and contributed many times when we ask about things and don't get a satisfactory reply at the click of the button. It is all hard time consuming to do a proper job with documented sources as living memory is fading and unreliable.
The next thing ..... almost obvious but I think worth mentioning. The French (I think practically all the Europe mainland) is based on a Mr. Bonapart where the calendar year postings and actual financial health of a company are "sort of known" with a lag. The decision making and dealing with a "lag" in legal sense for companies could with my limited knowledge drag on for potentially several years. I would argue count 2 years.
The next thing .... ramping up any relocation and tooling once legal ownership, transfer is granted and preparing the new entity obviously doesn't happen overnight.
For me, it get's really really murky when trying to figure out a specific date when exactly who did what and when concerning these old vintage bike parts. There's certainly a discrepancy of what the branding is, what inventory was on hand and transferred and then into the market, what could be sold off etc. I would argue count 2 years minimum.
All I want to really say is dating the bike part in your hand needs to be met with some reserve and tolerance. When we get well into very vintage I would argue with the far less precision and the printed press if you are approx. in a +/- 3 year it's hat's off.
One thing that I (we) constantly finding is some sort of very simple holistic view is missing. With the IT tools today it must be possible to generate a complete time line and help drill down, and also help connect some of the dots?
Would be monumental work obviously.
Anyhow. Just happy to learn. I think it's going to be sometime when we stop learning. Happy you made this place
@Guinessisgoodforyou
Final word. It's not all about bikes. There's Comte cheese and Cote du Rhone to digest.
https://www.moto-collection.org/blog/lube-montesa-torrot-rieju-lespagne-francophage/
