froilaivan

I have an old meral bicycle and can't find any info on it. The frame has info that says it's from france, but it has phone numbers to German companies. Some stickers say that the bike is "carbon manganese." It's also really light. The top tube is bent downward like a woman's bike, but it's not really a woman's bike (I guess?). You can find a pic of a bike resembling the meral I am describing, but it's not really the same:
https://www.fusion-holstebro.dk/cykler/centurion.htm (similar to the yellow bike half a page down)
If anyone knows anything about this bike, please tell me. Thanks.

Max Busch

It is not very much, I can contribute to the MERAL question:

I also own a Meral with Camus Carbone mangane steel tubing and I know of a couple of further bikes with this frame. Originally, these bikes have been equipped with Shimano 600 parts.

I also own a Meral touring bike and have seen some further Merals, race bikes with different tubing and equipment. Also I have seen very nice made randonneurs.

Merals have been sold in the 1980's in Germany and until the late 1990's I have seen a couple of NOS Merals at a bike store.

The relative new (french) Bicycle manufacturer Cyfac states, they formerly have produced Meral.

Regards

tbk

The RMO pro team used them in the late eighties early nineties, they used 753 frames, mainly white with a speckle finish i think

Stoker10

I had a very nice Meral from about 1974. It was built of very light Super Vitus 971 tubing with Simplex dropouts and high-end French parts. It had a Stronglight 93 crankset, Simplex Super L.J. derailleurs, Stronglight headset, highly-polished AVA stem and bars, Mafac "Competition" centerpulls, a Stronglight alloy seatpost with an Ideale 2002 saddle. Wheels were laced on high-flange Maillard 700 "Professional" hubs. There were no braze-ons; everything was clamp-on. I rode it for many years and even raced on it, but finally it developed a fatal crack where the seat tube went into the bottom bracket lug. It was my impression that Meral was a French builder, not German, and were noted for better-than-average machines. I have an old catalog here that lists an address in Savigne-sur-Lathan, France, which is near Tours. If I can come up with some pictures or scan the catalog, I'll post them here.

Max Busch

Meral is definitely French. In Velobase you will find a catalogue from the mid 80's

Stoker10

Thanks, Max Busch. I'm uploading a PDF of my Meral catalog here.

63rickert

Search engine.

Be nice to your search engine. Try ‘cycles meral’ rather than ‘meral bike’.

Medium sized shop for a reasonably long run. Lots and lots of information readily available.

ceelint

15yr revival.. new record?

MyFalcon1

I've just acquired a (very nice) Meral. Columbus tubing and top end Simplex/Spital with Huret seatpost. In pale metallic green and all original. I like it!

veganbikes

Just FYI the thread is from 2004 and was non-active then and has only been zombie'd and it is also in the single speed/fixed gear subforum. That all being said post some pictures which would require getting involved in the forums and I highly recommend getting involved in current active threads rather than old threads that aren't active. Once you get 10 posts which is super easy you can post pictures and such. You may consider posting those pictures in the Classic and Vintage subforum as they might have more interest but I am curious as I also like vintage bikes and green bikes.

Krov9

Nola Wilken had written quite a lot on Meral, the brand and some interesting bikes it built

​​https://restoringvintagebicycles.com...eral-bicycles/

https://restoringvintagebicycles.com/category/meral/