Retro Cycling Vintage

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Bianchi Steel bikes have been a mainstay of Italian and global cycling for many many years carrying many champions to success in both the one day classics and the Grand Tours. Typically available in Bianchi Celeste colour Bianchi steel frames stand out as a mark of history and quality in cycling. For the most part Bianchi utilize Columbus steel and still sell steel frames amongst a range that seems to be dominated, as most manufacturers are, of carbon and aluminium, which while nice for the modern cyclist don't have quite the same qualities as a steel frame does for a more discerning cyclist.

Remember to check frame spacing if you want to run 9 or 10 speed as some of the older frames would have been made for 7 or 8 speed (or even fewer) and while steel stays can be coerced (or bent as we call it in technical terms!) outwards there may be a limit to how far you can prise old frames apart to fit newer hubs in.

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Campagnolo disc wheels have been popular with time trial and track riders since the 1980s. Looking back at the photos from classic era Tours at that time you'll see riders of the day such as Fignon, Delgado, Roche and Indurain riding early Campagnolo disc wheels. With their stiff construction and aerodynamic properties they give an instant advantage as soon as they are put on your bike.

Remember to use caution when riding in crosswinds with Campagnolo disc wheels and dont use a track front disc on the open road as the crosswinds can seriously affect steering.

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Campagnolo Cycling Jersey For Sale

Campagnolo have been making cycling clothing for more years than anyone can remember. Jerseys, shorts, tops and caps with the classic C Campagnolo logo on have graced pelotons and victory podiums countless times.

Relive the classic moments in cycling with classic retro Campagnolo cycling jerseys.

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Mapei was a hugely popular and successful Italian based road bicycle racing team that was active between 1993 and 2002. Named after sponsoring firm Mapei who were an industrial company in Italy. From 2003 Mapei dropped their sponsorship and a new team was built on top of the old structure called Quick Step-Davitamon.Mapei was one of the strongest teams during the late 1990s, and ranked as the strongest UCI team for the whole period between 1994-2000 and during 2002.

Dominant during the early season classics the team had the great Belgian and Italian classic specialists of the 1990s such as Andrea Tafi, Johan Museeuw, Michele Bartoli, Franco Ballerini under the guidance of Patrick Lefevre as directeur sportif and then manager. The team won Paris-Roubaix five times. Three times the team even had three riders in the first three places. In the 1996 edition, the sprint for the line was decided 10 miles from the finish when Directeur sportif Patrick Lefevere who was following the race in the team car talked with the owner of Mapei, Giorgio Squinzi, in Milan who said that Museeuw was to win the race. Gianluca Bortolami was second while Andrea Tafi was third. In 1998 Franco Ballerini won the race with over four minutes ahead of his two teammates Tafi and Wilfried Peeters and in 1999 Tafi won with an advantage of two minutes over teammates Peeters and Tom Steels. In the summer of 2000, Lefevre announced that the Belgian part of the Mapei team would be leaving the team to form a new team called Domo-Farm Frites which had Museeuw as team captain. As a result, there was an intense rivalry between the two teams.

The official names of the team changed depending as to what other co -sponsors were onboard. The team was known under the following names: Mapei (1993) Mapei-Clas , Mapei-GB (Not related to the united kingdom!), Mapei-Bricobi and finally Mapei-Quickstep.

Mapei was less dominating in the Grand Tours such as France, Spain and Italy. The only true stage race specialist was Tony Rominger, who won the 1994 Vuelta a España and the 1995 Giro d'Italia for the team. As Rominger focused on the Tour de France in 1996, Abraham Olano was given the leadership role at the Giro d'Italia in 1996. Olano took the maglia rosa but lost it in the mountains and during the Tour, Rominger lost time in the mountains. In latter years Paolo Bettini was Lefevre's most notable rider but in the end he had to settle as a one day specialist as well.

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No one could have realised the impact Ernesto Colnago was to have on the design and production of road racing bicycles back when he was a boy on his parent's farm in Cambiago, Northern Italy during the 1940's.
Turning his back on continuing the family's farming traditions he went to work in a local small bicycle factory which he then turned into a shop where he could service the local's bicycles.

Like many young Italian men at that time Ernesto Colnago had dreams of becoming a professional bike racer and enjoyed some success until a particularly bad accident scuppered his dream leaving him with a broken leg. At this point he chose to focus solely on bicycle components and mechanics and joined a racing team as a mechanic. The team enjoyed success and rose to prominence when the famous Eddy Merckx joined - infact it is one of the most iconic teams of its time and one most afficianados of cycle sport have heard of - the mighty Molteni squad.

Ernesto Colnago didn't just service the bikes for Molteni, he started making the frames as well. Originally they were painted in the colours of the team and had the team branding on them but eventually people were clamouring to find out who was making the frames that Eddy Merckx was riding and winning aboard.

With Eddy's compulsive attention to detail and Ernesto's engineering genius an awesome partnership grew - Eddy could tell Ernesto exactly what he needed from a frame in order to be the most successful cyclist that ever raced meaning Ernesto could build it exactly to his specifications and would in turn go on to develop one of the most prestiguous bike brands.

Look out for a future article on the Colnago frames that have been ridden at the very highest levels of the sport

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Gianni Bugno, born on the 14 February 1964, was one of the top Italian cyclists of the early 1990s at a time when the Italians were head and shoulders above everyone else.

He rode with a  great talent and class and always demonstrated a  pure and rare elegance.  He was al considered ccasionally fragile, thereby capable of alternating prestigious wins with periods of obscurity. Considered one of the last older racers who could compete at the highest levels both in the classic one-day stage race and three weeks grand tours , and to win time trials, mountain stages and reach a final sprint, participating increasingly in all major Cycle races of the season. He even experimented with good results in six days track events during the winter cementing his place as an all rounder.

Bugno showed great promise as an amateur, with victory in the prestigious GP Liberation in 1985 and then becoming professional in the the same year, achieving 72 victories.

He now works for the Italian television station RAI piloting their helicopter to film the Giro d'Italia.

Major wins

* Victory in the Tour of Italy in 1990, wearing the pink jersey from first to last stage, putting his with the greats Constant Girardengo, Alfredo Binda and Eddy Merckx.
* Two world championships, won consecutively in 1991 and 1992, plus a third place in 1990.
* Four wins in World Cup races: the Milan-Sanremo and the Wincanton Classic in 1990, the Clasica San Sebastian in 1991 (with 30 km of solo attack), the Tour of Flanders in 1994 (beating Johan Museeuw in a photo finish) . In 1990 he also won the final standings of the World Cup. Also ranked second in the Amstel Gold Race in 1993 and in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and in the Championship of Zurich in 1995. But has never succeeded in obtaining an important result on home soil in the Giro di Lombardia, which in those years finished at Monza where Bugno has lived for many years.
* Tour de France hewon the second place in the overall standings in 1991 behind Miguel Indurain, and third in 1992, preceded by Indurain and Claudio Chiappucci. He also won two consecutive years (1990-1991), the stage of Alpe d'Huez, one of the most prestigious in the world.
* Two victories in the Italian National Road Race Championship (1991 and 1995 Giro del Friuli Trofeo Matteotti).
* In addition to three consecutive Tours Apennines (1986-1988), two Coppa Agostoni (1988 and 1995), a Giro del Piemonte (1986), a Three Valleys Varesine (1989), a Giro dell'Emilia (1992), a Milan -Turin (1992), a Giro del Lazio (1992), 9 stages in the Giro d'Italy, 4 stages of the Tour de France, 2 in the Vuelta.

Between 1990 and 1991 was number 1 in the UCI world rankings.

In August 1994 he was found positive to caffeine in a dope test and was suspended for three months.

On 12 April 2006 he was awarded the gold part of the U.S. Apennines Pontedecimo Section Cycling for winning three times in succession, the Tour of the Apennines (1986, 1987 and 1988), as well as finishing second in 1989 and 1991. Previously this award was given to Alfredo Martini, Giambattista Baronchelli, Francesco Moser, Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi, Michele Dancelli, Gianni Motta and Italo Zilioli.

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If we ignore the cheaper supermarket style high tensile steel frames and look at the classic steel alloy frames which are often a mixture with chrome, manganese, nickel etc we can see the the recent successful utilization of aluminium and carbon fibre meant that steel had to raise its game to keep up in the bike frame business.
Go back to the 80s and Reynolds 531 and 753 and Columbus SL and SP dominated the racing market. Look at the 1990s and beyond to see Reynolds and Columbus joined by a multitude of other tubing manufactuers whilst expanding their own offerings of tubesets to satisfy a greater demand of rider's requirements. Touring, mtb, track, time trialing all require slightly different tubesets.
In addition to the wider selection of steels consumers are also faced with a wider choice of tubes made from the materials. Plain guage and double butted have been supplemented by a wide selection of different buttings and profiles.
To a great extent steel had become unfashionable amonst riders which means it becomes fashionable for restorers. Newer materials are often pushed as being 'better' , however its certainly worth remembering that good steel tubes remain eminently suitable for bicycle frames. They also usually offer the answer when the question is quite simply "what frame should I get?"

For: Strong, Cheap, Stiff, Repairable
Against: Rust

Good examples of steel frames for restoration projects

Easy: Raleigh, Bianchi, Colnago, Merckx, Peugeot
Harder to find: Masi, Botecchia, Pinarello, Moser, ciocc, wilier,
Great if you can get one: Legnano, Roberts, Mercian, Hetchins

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The name Atala was considered one of the great manufacturers of Italian bicycles, particularly racing models of the past. It was founded by Cesare Rizzato in Padua, Italy.

Since the early twentieth century Atala ran its own cycling team, participating in the first editions of the Tour of Italy and having success to win the unusual competition for teams of 1912.

Following a high period which saw many victories on the road at some of the world championships in the 80s the company hthen experienced a period of crisis, being sold by the Rizzo family in 2002, forming the new group Atala, owned by a group of owners of Milan and Banca Antonveneta. It is currently owned by the Turkish company Bisiklet Bianchi, with Turkey being almost the entire centre of production, so famous an Italian brand with production in Turkey.

Today Turkey produces mainly a leisure bike with various lines, but imports from China also accessories, spare parts and items for fitness.

Atala also diversified like many other manufactueres into motorcycles.
From 1938 to 2002 was a remarkable motorcycle production in the field of small displacements and some models were powered by the electric motor.

From our point of view looking at classic bikes Atala was definitely a full range manufacturer. They did produce entry level models and during the 1970's bike boom these models were barely above department store models. These bicycles left a lot to be desired, but they attracted the customers, because the Italians made sure they emphasized the cosmetics with lots of chrome and elegant paint. During the 1980s there were many lower mid-range model made which can still be picked up today and restored into an interesting project. During this period many of the Italian manufacturers simply named the bicycle based on the tubeset and/or grouppo eg Atala Aelle Triomphe. It may have been Campy Triomphe or Gran Sport equipped but more likely it was Campagnolo derailleurs mixed with various Miche, Gipiemme, Modolo, Ofmega and/or Universal componentry. If you are lucky enough find an old Italian frame to work on you might want to consider sourcing these components to keep it unique.

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It is thought there were around a million two-wheelers operating in Europe in the late nineteenth century, but at this point nobody had yet built one in Italy until a young mechanic in Milan could be classified the equivalent of what Henry Ford was for the United States, came up with the most revolutionary idea of his time, to build high-quality bicycles.
His name was Edoardo Bianchi and he was born in Milan on 17 July 1865. With no news about his origins or his family he grew up in the "Martinitt" (of which he was throughout his life one of the most generous donors) where he had been taught the rudiments of mechanics. The young craftsman had a premonition about the future of mechanized transport when, in August of 1885 he opened a shop in Milan, in Via Nirone n.7 to and between medical and wheeled carriages, bells and kitchen equipment, he happened to have to repair bicycle.
He understood immediately that the velocipede, with its efficiency, simplicity and self-propelled engine would be the future of transportation and he concentrated all his efforts on it, developing a philosophy: to only build high quality with the best materials available.

Already in 1888 his reputation had spread throughout the city so he had to expand with a factory opened in Via Bertani. Business was good and his reputation grew in tandem with the advances of his bikes. He was, for example, the first to adopt that very year, the invention of Scottish veterinarian John Dunlop's inflatable tyres and to offer its customers this avant-garde product.

He again expanded his store by moving to the Via Borghetto when they happened on two occasions he was able to exploit surprise and achieve a turning point for his company.
The first was when Queen Margherita, on holiday in Monza, called him to the palace. The request was to teach her to ride a bicycle. Edoardo hastily built a bike for the sovereign which was of course adorned with blue and gold crest on the frame of the House of Savoy, It also had knobs of ivory and Edoardo Bianchi took her to a wooden box lined with red velvet .
The impact of this was dramatic. Bianchi was awarded the title of "Official Supplier to the Royal Household" and it was even necessary to form an assembly line to meet the demands of bicycles the same as that of the queen who also came from Spain, France and Portugal.

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Legnano (pronounced Len-yan-o) has been one of the largest manufacturers of bicycles in Italy and is also known for having long had a vrey successful cycling team.

In addition to making high end race bikes, Legnano also produced leisure bikes, keeping unchanged for a long time the colors and graphics on the frame, a particular color green which even today is associated with the Italian brand.

The image of the company was a badge which represented an effigy of Alberto da Giussano, which until the 1960s, models were made of brass and affixed the head tube. Over time this was subsequently replaced by badges or stickers.

The brand Legnano has been taken over by fellow Milanese bike producers Bianchi, who today continues to produce a line of racing bikes under the Legnano brand aimed at the medium level racing market.

Present as a team since the first editions of the Tour of Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century, Legnano emerged in the decade preceding the Second World War thanks to riders like Gino Bartali. In the late '30s he was hired as an amateur along with Fausto Coppi, who, past professional won the Giro surprisingly in 1940.

The success that pro racing results bought Legnano meant that it still has a place in the heart of many Italians of a certain age. For those growing up during the 1950s and 1960s a Legnano bicycle was the machine to aspire to and with a price of several months the average wage it was a dream for many Italians to own one.