Cycles Mercier

Cycles Mercier assembles bicycles consisting of Kinesis Industry Co and Maxway Cycles Co., Ltd. frames, manufactured in Taiwan, has no relationship to the long-time French bicycle manufacturer, Mercier. Other bicycle brands associated with this group include Motobécane USA, Windsor America, Dawes USA, and Bottecchia USA.

The brand name originally belonged to its founder, Émile Mercier, in the central-eastern French city of St Étienne that, because of its background as a centre of rifle production, and therefore of tubing, became the production base of the French cycle industry.

Mercier was an ambitious businessman who saw the value of sponsoring top riders of the day. In a complicated row concerning a rider called André Leducq, Mercier gained the disapproval of Henri Desgrange, organiser of the Tour de France and editor of the daily sports paper, "L'Auto". Desgrange picked the French team for the Tour and, because of the row, left out Leducq, who rode for Mercier.

Mercier saw personal spite in the decision and complained. He had spent a lot of money on the sponsorship and now he risked wasting it. Desgrange refused to change his decision. According to Desgrange's successor, Jacques Goddet, in his book "L'Équipée Belle", Mercier complained more and more and Desgrange became ever more determined. When Mercier began getting lawyers to complain, Desgrange ordered his staff never to mention Mercier's name again. His problem was that it was hard not to write about Mercier because he was a team sponsor and an influential businessman. He sometimes had to have his complaints published. So L'Auto compromised by never spelling his name correctly. That drove Mercier to engage still more more lawyers were engaged. To which L'Auto would print corrections, only to get the name wrong once more. "Monsieur Gercier has let us known that his name is Monsieur Mervier", and then, "Monsieur Mervier asks us to say that, in reality, he is called Monsieur Cermier." When the aggrieved and non-existent Monsieur Cermier wrote in once more, L'Auto excelled itself by printing: "Monsieur Cermier insists that in fact he is known as Monsieur Merdier".

"Merde is French for excrement.The row fizzled out after a while and Mercier wasn't discouraged from sponsoring riders. His team and that of Peugeot were among the last in the sport to be sponsored primarily by a cycle company even when rising costs had forced many teams to seek support from outside the sport from the 1960s. Mercier's most prominent rider was the Frenchman Raymond Poulidor, who stayed with Mercier and the teams that succeeded it throughout his career.

External links

* [http://www.cyclesmercier.com/ Mercier Cycles website]