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| Category: | Cranksets |
| Name: | Ofmega Mundial |
| Brand: | Ofmega |
| Primary Group: | Mundial |
| Model: | 2100 |
| Years: | Early 1980's - ? |
| Country: | Italy |
| Weight: | 675 grams (Actual) |
| Added By: | JFischer on 08/07/07 |
| Updated By: | peterbman on 03/15/17 |
Additional Photos - click for full size |
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| Component Groups |
| Primary Group Name | Brand | Quick Info | Browse Group Components |
| Mundial | Ofmega | Sport & Recreation | View 2 Components |
Details: The Mundial gruppo was Ofmega's cheaper and more robust version of their brilliant Mistral range. The groupset was designed for use on tourers, early mountain bikes and BMXs. Having said that, they were also a good-looking, cheap and steady groupset that were used on mid-range road bikes.
The derailleurs are cheap knock-offs of their own Mistral range; missing some of the bling and charm of the original and seem to have only come in black. They were deliberately designed to be simpler and less likely to get clogged up, which is why the lower spring bolt is hidden under the bottom knuckle. Interestingly, there doesn't seem to have been a front dérailleur, with most groupset coming with either the Mistral or Premier mech'.
Unlike Mistral headsets and hubs, which are rare enough, the Mundial versions are very scarce. It may be that fewer of them survived or that they weren't kept, as they were seen as not that good.
The cranks are still beautiful but not as crisp as those for the Mistral range. They did come in Ofmega's stock anodising range (red, blue, gold and black), as well as the standard plain aluminium. There were single speed, smaller BMX versions, which were popular and, again, came in the stock anodised colours. All of the coloured sets are seriously rare, with only one or two red or blue BMX cranksets or a gold road-bike crankset turning up a year. The holes on the inner chainrings (and all of the BMX chainrings) are threaded to take the chainring bolts. To single-speed a smaller chainring, you will need to find BMX chainring bolts or put spacers on the standard ones (on the outside).
Like most Ofmega groupsets, they can commonly be identified before you open the box by its colour. Mundial boxes are often a mid-range blue, with a photograph of the component on the cover. However, sometimes, they turn up in Mistral boxes, which are black and gold.
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Ofmega SpA was an Italian motorbike and bicycle components company producing high quality components in a variety of ranges: including Master, Mistral (for both road and track), Mundial (a cheaper, slightly later version of Mistral), Competizione, Super Competizione, Linea, Premier, Gran Premio and CX for the road and Sierra for mountain bikes. There were probably more, including at least one other pista/track range. They also produced children's cranksets, individual chainrings and other small components.
The company had a reputation of making slightly (or really) innovative products that were made to a very high quality. Their Mistral dérailleur range, made from a high density, strong plastic, were considered to be amongst the lightest on the market and, certainly, the most colourful. The Mistral range included five (possibly more) colour-coordinated groupsets (both front and rear dérailleurs and "Sintesi" pedals); Pink ("Maglia Rosa" - "Pink Jersey"), Yellow ("Maillot Jaune" - "Yellow Jersey") and Blue ("Squadra Azzura" - "Blue Team" after the Italian national team), Black and Whitest/grey (it would be nice to think that this was the "Milk Race" but probably not). There may have been a green variety but this may just be someone seeing a blue item that had been bleached out in strong sunlight - apparently the blue form was prone to bleaching. A cheaper version of the Mistral rear dérailleurs were produced as the "Mundial" range (with an aluminium jockey-wheel cage and no adjustable barrel spring) but only in black.
The Mistral range was not their only colourfull offering. From the mid-1990s Ofmega started to produce the Sierra range, which was mostly appalling. However, there was a spin-off groupo called Sirio. Sirio cranks came in at least two colours, bright pink and acidic green, whereas, the Sierra range came mostly in black, grey and white. It was these groups that had their production moved in Slovakia in 2000. In addition, the Competizione groupset came anodised in red, blue or gold, as well as plain aluminium: The anodised components included hubs, chainrings and pedals.
Ofmega made or rebranded components for other bicycle brands, such as Bianchi, Colnago, Legnano, Regina and Avocet. At one point, most of the Avocet component range was made by Ofmega. Often, the rebranding is just an added pantographed logo (in the Colnago case, it is the singature of Ernasto Colnago). However, in the case of Legnano branded components, the logo is engraved into the item. It may be that some items were made by other companies, such as the Simplex, in the late 1980s and 1990s. It is thought that the gear shifters for the "Mistral" range were made by Modolo; the cronos shifters look very similar. However, on close inspection, the two aren't that similar and Ofmega claim to have made them themselves.
They made most of the sets, including hubs, cranks, headsets, freewheels, front and rear dérailleurs, as well as odd small parts. Ofmega appeared to have outsourced their dérailleur production to Simplex in 1987 (Michael Sweatman, Disraeli Gears), and some Simplex derailleurs were labelled Ofmega. This lead to an apparent lowering in quality. However, some of their latest items were of a very good standard.
Ofmega missing groups (a list of groupsets not yet represented on Velobase): Strada (may be the same as Competizione or Master), Nuovo Competizione, Vega, Acero, Motion, Rover, Sierra, Lusso, BMX, Nuovo Mistral, Vantage 2 (some of these may be after the period). The "BMX" kit that Ofmega made in the period are smaller "Mundial" pieces. The carbon mountain bike cranks and the glorious "Nuovo Mistral" carbon cranks were the last things that Ofmega took to bike trade shows.
