Spidel was a brand created, possibly in 1976, as a French ‘national champion’ to bring together a truly top notch Gallic groupset and strike fear into the hearts of those cheese-eating surrender monkeys from Japan and Italy - or am I getting confused about who eats what...

Spidel did bring together some fine components, Stronglight’s best chainsets, Mafac’s top brake sets, Maillard’s professional quality hubs and last and most probably least, Simplex’s idea of a decent derailleur. But a Simplex derailleur running a Sedis chain over a Maillard freewheel was never going to make for a slick gear change. There was also no one controlling party that demanded a consistent look, feel, and, most crucially, quality of user experience. Outside of a few patriotic manufacturers (Peugeot seems to spring to mind) the groupsets did not really catch on.

Simply being French is, occasionally, not quite enough. A sad but well-deserved failure.