DISRAELI DOCUMENTS
This Chemineau advert betrays Joanny Panel’s fear that competition is starting to bite in the fraternal and gentlemanly world of artisan derailleur manufacture. He claims that his products are constructed by an ‘elite staff’ (no mindless factory worker-drones here), urges consumers to ‘check the branding’ on any components before they buy and suggests that they should ‘be wary of counterfeits’.
One would have to suspect that he is having a dig at Albert Raimond and his new Cyclo business. Albert Raimond definitely thought that the only viable future lay with efficient factories rather than with cosy workshops. And, to his dying day, Joanny Panel considered that the ‘Le Cyclo’ derailleur was a worthless and ill-disguised clone of his proud and honourable ‘Le Chemineau’ model.
Hell hath no fury like a derailleur manufacturer who has convinced himself that he has been scorned.
(Source gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France)
