Gianni Motta bike – by Anders on Flickr Creative Commons licenced under CC BY-ND 2 For many of us who grew up during 1970s and 80s, Italian bikes and components were the things or dreams and teenage lust. With cycling films like Breaking Away showing them off in all their glory, it’s hardly surprising.
Italian was simply sexy, or sex on wheels as you might say. There were many legendary Italian bike, component and clothing brands that were prominent during that era, and some still survive today. Some live on only in naming rights, while others just evaporated with the decline of the European bike industry that wreaked havoc at that time.
> How Cerchio Ghisallo make classic wooden bike wheels
Here are five legendary Italian brands of that era that are seemingly lost to the modern cycling world; although some, obviously, have a much longer and deeper history to them… Galli
South Salem Cycleworks (link is external) All gloriously gold, drilled to perfection, a little sloppy at actually stopping you… but while those Galli Critirium brakes took a teenage me some time to work off, they were my pride and joy during the early 80s, as were my matching gold and bendy, super light golden Galli toes clips. Ahh, early Italian bling of the finest order! I guess that those curvaceous good looks and that undefinable sense of style that came from the Italian brand should come as no surprise, given that the head of the company during […]
Continue reading the original article at: road.cc