What the Hell happened to this gem...Kervelo compact MGU?

[TCFlowClyde]

Steve Smith of EMBN mentioned today on his channel that this French start up company produce a nifty, compact designed MGU way back in 2018 called the Quartz . Status unknown unfortunately. Website non-existent/disabled.

Thanks to Steve's early OG experience with the Emtb genre's knowledge base, some nice bits of data from the "old days" provide a frame of reference. This lil' gem was light, 12-spd, 70 Nm, Fazua 60-like stealthy design.

A fricken great idea! Sure 85 Nm would be most desirable but look at the low profile...amazing especially for 7 years ago! Which serves as a relatively long time in the fast paced emtb market.

Who knows their fate?

I'm hoping that they quietly went back to their engineering lab and got the 15 Nm extra torque and have been sitting on it waiting for the Pinion MGU to break the ice.

 

[Zimmerframe]

They were a small company. Two guys I think (Marc LE BORGNE being the president and I think 5 main shareholders) . They made bikes and small vehicles for disabled use.

Then tinkered with the gearbox idea and the MGU.

If you search the forum, they came up several times in the past and there was reasonable interest.

Ultimately, like several other smaller companies (and some larger) who were developing motors and various gearbox type systems, they didn't have enough money :-(

They had a couple of outstanding factures (bills) which were unpaid and eventually the company was liquidated in October 2023. Looking through some of the accounts they were struggling a bit even in 2018/2019.

Kervelo (74130) : siret, siren, TVA, adresse...

Société Kervelo (Mont-Saxonnex, 74130) : numéro siret, siren, information, adresse, contact, numero tva intracommunautaire...

entreprises.lefigaro.fr

 

[Zimmerframe]

 

[TCFlowClyde]

They were a small company. Two guys I think (Marc LE BORGNE being the president and I think 5 main shareholders) . They made bikes and small vehicles for disabled use.

Then tinkered with the gearbox idea and the MGU.

If you search the forum, they came up several times in the past and there was reasonable interest.

Ultimately, like several other smaller companies (and some larger) who were developing motors and various gearbox type systems, they didn't have enough money :-(

They had a couple of outstanding factures (bills) which were unpaid and eventually the company was liquidated in October 2023. Looking through some of the accounts they were struggling a bit even in 2018/2019.

Kervelo (74130) : siret, siren, TVA, adresse...

Société Kervelo (Mont-Saxonnex, 74130) : numéro siret, siren, information, adresse, contact, numero tva intracommunautaire...

entreprises.lefigaro.fr

Ahhh! Too bad really, but thanks for the follow-up. Seems like such a major engineering feat to be cast aside by the industry somewhat like the Kindernay K-VII IGH unfortunately. (Still wondering conspiratorially if Sram had a hand in it to quell it's evolving lighter weight)

Also, the Kervelo Quartz compact shape and ninja design was something I envisioned for the ZF Centrix 90Nm's future MGU version when they launched last year. Apparently, ZF has the automotive experience with gearboxes and maybe integrate their little motor into a compact 8-spd, MGU design too.

BTW I'm still waiting for any review chatter for the Raymon Tarok! I guess Raymon is taking online production reservations still, so I'm expecting the YT influencers will get a chance this Spring?