Cycles Follis, founded in 1903 and previously based in 10, rue Danton,

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, was a long-established

artisan An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...

manufacturer in the

French bicycle industry The French bicycle industry and the history of the bicycle are intertwined. Spanning the last century and a half, the industry has seen two booms, and continues into the 21st century, albeit less dominant today. Invention To most the invention o ...

. Cycles Follis built a range of

bicycles A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

, but was particularly well known for its

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

s and

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

s. During the 1940s and 1950s, he received many patents, mostly on brakes and drivetrain components. In the 1940s and 1950s Follis had teams and individual racers competing for him in his own name, most notably

Jean Forestier Jean Forestier (born 7 October 1930) is a French former cyclist. He was a professional from 1953 to 1965. Forestier won the points classification in the 1957 Tour de France, and wore the yellow jersey for two days. He also won the 1955 Paris–Ro ...

, who won numerous races and three stages of the Tour de France in 1954–1957, finishing 4th overall in 1957 and winning the green jersey. In 1973, the granddaughter of the founder Joseph Follis, Myriam, took over. She was married to the former employee Jean-Claude Chollet, and they ran the business until its closure in 2007. The entire production of this period were hand-crafted, made to measure steel frames and forks. Consequently, there was no serial production. Customers could determine if they preferred lugs or fillet brazed frames as well as practically any other detail. This included part specifications and paint, and only complete bicycles were sold. Many tandems and racing bicycles were made for and branded by the financing, sometimes competing companies. The company celebrated its 100th birthday in 2003 by offering 100 bicycles numbered on the steerer tube badge. The company is no longer in business, as the couple retired in the summer of 2007.

References

Cycle manufacturers of France Manufacturing companies based in Lyon {{cycle-manufacturer-stub