DISRAELI DOCUMENTS

Lewis

French Patent 778,940 - Lewis main image French Patent 887,170 - Lewis main image French Patent 892,633 - Lewis main image



see also French Patent # 778,940 - Lewis 1934

see also French Patent # 778,940 - Lewis 1934

French Patent 778,940 - Lewis thumbnail


see also French Patent # 887,170 - Lewis 1941

see also French Patent # 887,170 - Lewis 1941

French Patent 887,170 - Lewis thumbnail


see also French Patent # 892,633 - Lewis 1942

see also French Patent # 892,633 - Lewis 1942

French Patent 892,633 - Lewis thumbnail


Notice de Montage du Lewis Route 1942?

Notice de Montage du Lewis Route 1942?

  • Publisher: Lewis
  • Date: 1942?
  • Derailleur brands: Lewis
  • Derailleurs: Lewis Route
Notice de Montage du Lewis Route scan 1 thumbnail


see also French Patent # 902,512 - Lewis 1944

see also French Patent # 902,512 - Lewis 1944

French Patent 902,512 - Lewis thumbnail


see also Le Cycle 08/1946 - image of New-Lewis

see also Le Cycle 08/1946 - image of New-Lewis

  • Publisher: Le Cycle
  • Date: August 1946
  • Derailleur brands: Lewis
  • Derailleurs: New-Lewis
Le Cycle 1946 08 - Le Lewis thumbnail


Notice de Montage du Dérailleur Lewis CM7 1946?

Notice de Montage du Dérailleur Lewis CM7 1946?

  • Publisher: Lewis
  • Date: 1946?
  • Derailleur brands: Lewis
  • Derailleurs: Lewis CM7
Notice de Montage du Derailleur Lewis CM7 scan 1 thumbnail


see also L'Équipe 01/07/1947 - Lewis ad

see also L'Équipe 01/07/1947 - Lewis ad

L'Équipe 1st July 1947 - Lewis advert thumbnail


see also Route et Piste 19/10/1948 - Lewis ad

see also Route et Piste 19/10/1948 - Lewis ad

Route et Piste 19th October 1948 - Lewis advert thumbnail



see also New Cycling 05/1981 - '81 Derailleur Collection

see also New Cycling 05/1981 - '81 Derailleur Collection

  • Publisher: New Cycling
  • Date: May 1981
  • Derailleur brands: too numerous to list here
  • Derailleurs: too numerous to list here
New Cycling May 1981 - Derailleur Collection page 017 thumbnail

Lewis, also known as Le Lewis, was the brand of Louis Villemus. An entry on velobase.com claims that the name 'Lewis' was a play on 'Louis'. I think that Louis Villemus was born in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, France, the other side of the mountain from Alpe d'Huez, and that he rode in the 1913 and 1914 Tours de France.

Societé Le Lewis was based in Voiron, near Grenoble, where Louis Villemus appears to have been associated with a specialist cycle shop run by a M. Bernadet. However, Louis Villemus appears to have lived in Albertville, also in the French Alps and not so far from Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne and additionally seems to be associated with the Reyhand bicycle brand, based in Lyon. Voiron, Albertville and Lyon are all in the same general part of France, but are some significant distance apart from each other - Louis will have been a busy man travelling between them.

The Lewis product range included a number of well made derailleurs and some innovative and high quality centre-pull and cantilever brakes. Louis Villemus seems to have been able to produce particularly well designed and finished aluminium alloy parts, at a time when the aluminium components of other manufacturers were often rather crude and spurious.

Lewis appears to have been active between about 1934 and the late 1940s. I find it slightly surprising that the company was able to produce a flurry of up-market aluminium bicycle components between 1941 and 1944, at the height of the Second World War. It's not a time when you would have thought that aluminium, or indeed any resources, would have been especially easy to come by.

In 1952 Rodolphe and Roger Villemus, of Route de Chambery, Albertville, France, applied to register a design for handlebars for a moped. Perhaps they were Louis' sons and possibly this may indicate that the business was still active at this date.