Saavedra is the brand name of Cosme Saavedra SA, a bicycle company founded by Cosme Saavedra in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1934. Cosme Saavedra was a legendary Argentine cyclist who competed in the road race at both the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris (coming 30th) and the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam (coming 15th). He was also Road Race Champion of Argentina in 1926, 1931 and 1933, with his brother Remigio coming second in 1931 and 1933. Cosme Saavedra's entry on es.wikipedia.org states that he is 'recognized as the father of Argentine cycling'.

When he retired from racing, Cosme Saavedra become a bicycle shop owner, frame builder and manufacturer of bicycles and bicycle components. The company appears to have particularly specialized in producing aluminium rims.

The Saavedra business closed in 2007. However a business called Dialcar SRL, based in Buenos Aires continues to make rims to the designs used by Saavedra, and may possibly be related in some way to the original Saavedra business.

Saavedra appears on this web site because, starting around 1980, it produced a number of derailleur models based on Rino designs.

---

I was extremely fortunate to have the chance to conduct a brief email interview with Martina, the great-granddaughter of Cosme Saavedra. It went like this

• Can you tell me about your relationship to Cosme Saavedra?

Cosme Saavedra was the father of my grandma Nelly Saavedra. Cosme was the brother of another great Argentine cyclist Remigio Saavedra.

• When did your great-grandfather establish the business?

After a career in racing, Cosme established the business in 1934. At first, it was a store selling imported bicycles from France and England. The store was located in Palermo, Buenos Aires, in Avenida Santa Fe between Salguero and Álvarez.

The first store functioned for about 10 years, and around 1944 it was moved to a building only a couple of blocks away, on a site that Cosme had bought. Until then, he was just selling imported items, but in the new store Cosme started producing small spare parts. The first spare part that he produced was a small connector that solved the problem of broken pieces in air pumps. The store grew into a production facility until half of the building was dedicated to producing parts for the general cycling public, such as brakes.

During Peron´s government, the neighbourhood, where the building was located, was declared a non-industrial zone, so they were not able to add any new machines or move existing ones. To solve this, Cosme bought almost a block in an area of the city of Buenos Aires called Mataderos. Half of the property was rented out and the other half was established as a production facility. Sadly, a day before moving all the machines to the new property, on July 3rd 1967, Cosme died. His eldest daughter and his son, took over the family business. This however would delay the setting up of the new factory to Easter 1968.

• What was the business like? Was it a large factory of a small workshop?

The factory had 2 floors and a floor area of around 1000 square meters. It also employed around 30 people, such as turners.

• Were its main products specialist sports bicycles or general models of all types?

Cosme used to import and produce items for everyone. However, in the 1970s, after his death, his son brought the idea from the US to start producing specialized parts, such as gear sets. That´s also when they started producing purely in aluminium. In 2000 with the economic crisis and competition from imported parts they stopped producing all of the groupsets, and were only making competition wheels.

• How has the business passed down the generations?

Cosme had two daughters (one of them my grandma) and one son. My grandma and her brother took care of the business when Cosme died in 1967 and kept the business running until 2007, when the business closed. The only thing that remains in the family is the building Cosme bought around 1944. Today this is being leased to a restaurant.

• The cycle components business seems to date from around 1980. Did they market components before or after this?

Yes, both imported and own production.

• Did they make any of the components in Argentina or were they mainly rebranded Italian items?

They never rebranded items. They imported the castings from a foundry in Italy, the same one used for Campagnolo parts, since castings made in Argentina were of poor quality at the time. After receiving the castings, in the production facility they would add all the parts needed to complete the component, such as gear sets.

These components were then sold in Argentina, as well as exported to USA, and Latin American countries such as Colombia and Uruguay.

• What are you most proud of?

My grandma is most proud of their name and reputation. Saavedra was synonymous with quality, responsibility, honesty, and trust. The name opened many doors for them in business.

• On a final note:

The 5th of December is Cyclist Day in Argentina. This day is in named in honor of the great achievement that Remigio Saavedra (Cosme’s brother) accomplished for a second time in 1981, at the age of 70, by cycling the 1,196 km between Mendoza and Buenos Aires in 18 hours 45 minutes.

The first time he did this was in 1943, when it took him 17 hours and 33 minutes.

---

My thanks go to Martina and her grandmother for this fascinating content, and to Alex in London for setting up this email interview and for translating the Spanish for me.