Zeus
Zeus Industriale S.A. was founded in 1926 by Don Nicolas de Arregui in Eibar, the arms- and metalworking town at the heart of the Spanish Basque Country. Drawing on Eibar's centuries-old tradition of precision gunsmithing and fine machining, Zeus grew from making small parts to producing components and, uniquely, complete professional bicycles fitted almost entirely with its own parts. Long dubbed the Spanish Campagnolo for its faithful Gran Sport-era copies, Zeus broke away in the mid-1970s with the legendary Zeus 2000 group (introduced 1975): extensively drilled, titanium-laden and famously lighter than Campagnolo Super Record, it let Zeus make a realistic claim to the best groupset in the world. The company ceased trading around the late 1980s/early 1990s; the name was later acquired by nearby Orbea.