The Big Three

Cinelli still at it

Reading up on Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx - the greatest cyclist of all-time - and naturally it lead me into the remarkably diverse world of Italian bicycles. The list of bike manufacturers are too numerous to name in one post (Gianni Motta is one example), but I'd like to mention three who happen to be widely regarded as the top makes of lightweight racing bikes: Masi, Cinelli and De Rosa.

No nation on the planet do bikes like Italy.

Merckx, who rode for Italian teams Faema and Molteni (now involved with Salmilano), produced a bike line bearing his name usually built on Italian frames (as well as British, Japanese and of course Belgian) built by Masi, Cinelli and Colnago.

The bike used by Merckx to inhumanely shatter the hour record in 1972 (later broken by Italian rider Francesco Moser in 1984)  was a combination of Columbus (frame), Cinelli (handlebars), Clement Seta Pista (tires), and Campagnolo (hubs, crank, seat post, pedals).

Image from Mad Motion.

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Incidentally, Belgian and Italian riders have dominated the UCI Road World Champions list. Belgium has won 25 gold medals to Italy's 19. The next best is France at eight. Italy has 55 total medals to Belgium's 47. Again, France is third with 34.

Colnago Bikes Still Cutting Edge

Ernesto Colnago founded a bike manufacturing company in 1954 that, in time, conquered the world. If one bike can claim to be one of the greatest ever, it's Colnago. His bikes have been utilized by over 100 professional teams and 2500 riders who in total have won more than 7500 races! One of those riders was Eddie Merckx of Belgium, arguably the greatest cyclist in history.

Colnago was the first to build cold-forged forks as well as straight forks in the 1980s. Other innovations included introducing the lightest steel frame bike (5.6kg) in 1972 and the Columbus tube frame in 1982. However, important as these were (and there are many more) in the development and evolution of bicycle technology, it was his breakthrough with a carbon fiber (as well as titanium and aluminum) frame in 1986 in conjunction with Ferrari.

And it's doesn't stop there. Over 50 years since opening, Colnago continues to be at the forefront of bicycle technology.