Cyfac
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Cyfac is a manufacturer of racing bicycle frames based in La Fuye, Hommes, Indre-et-Loire, France. Its founder, Francis Quillon, started as a racer but became a frame builder. An accomplished amateur, he also worked as a welder for the team's sponsor. In between races, Francis did repairs on his teammates' bikes, eventually building entire frames for the sponsor. Word spread and, soon enough, young Francis was building frames for many of the area's local racers, putting paid to his competitive career and leading to the opening of Cyfac. Francis' reputation for building beautifully crafted, custom framesets spread and the shop's clientele of professionals and top-level amateurs grew.
Image:Kusuma bike large.jpg Francis Quillon is known as somewhat of a trailblazer in many design aspects of racing bicycles. His shaped aluminum tubes are now widely copied, as is his unique rear-triangle design. While its small size limits its sponsorship involvements, Cyfac frames have been known to be ridden by professionals under the paint job of the team's sponsor. Cyfac bikes have been ridden by Bernard Hinault, Claudio Chiappucci, Cyrille Guimard, Laurent Fignon, Jeannie Longo, David Millar, and others. Recent collaboration with Alain Prost, the former Formula One champion, has resulted in new designs for the carbon parts of the frames. French cyclist Laurent Brochard rode a Cyfac in an actual Cyfac paintjob to victory in the World Cycling Championship in 1994. Cyfac is often associated with legendary coach Cyrille Guimard's teams and riders.
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Innovations
Image:Cyfac double stay.jpgCyfac pioneered the use of carbon-fiber seat and chain stays on their aluminum frames, the design of which is called the Cyfac double stay design. The advantage of this design is better comfort compared to the monolink design that is prevalent among racing bicycles (such as on the Columbus Muscle stays). The monolink design was used in earlier carbon seat/chain stay design in order to save costs, since only one piece needs to be welded to the main triangle of the frame.
Francis Quillon designed the keyhole-shaped aluminum tubing that is widely copied, such as in the Columbus Airplane tubeset. The advantage is increased stiffness for the same weight, and improved riding characteristic.
In recent years Cyfac has specialized in making custom full-carbon framesets utilizing mitre-cut tubing which allows full-carbon, full-custom construction. This method allows the designer to add more layers of kevlar and carbon to different parts of the frameset while allowing a fully custom-sized frame.
Image:Cyclist itt cyfac.jpg In 2003 the Cyfac Posturale System, a new bike fitting system based on scientific studies of performance improvements of cyclists conducted in France is released. It is implemented using a set of measurement-assisting devices for accurate measurements of the riders' anatomical characteristics.
Frame production
As a small frame manufacturer specializing in artisanal products, Cyfac doesn't have separate production lines for its frames. All the frames are subjected to the same attention to detail regardless of the source of order. Cyfac uses high-quality automotive paint and uses hand painting without any decals. As such, it offers custom tubing selection, geometry, paint, finish, and carbon layup.