Frameteller - My New Favorite Website

The Milanese and Venetian schools of classic builders are fairly well known. You have Gloria, who begat Galmozzi and Masi and Colnago who begat Rossin and on and on. Venetian brands are fairly well known as well, even if their lineage is a bit murkier. A visit to Turin and my eyes were opened to that incredibly talented school, which is known locally but not as well worldwide, what with folks like Ernesto and Ugo hogging the limelight still to this day.

After my visit to Emilia Romagna's Somec, a favorite brand from my teenage years, my eyes were opened to yet another innovative classic Italian school of builders. I recently found frameteller.it, where regional pride has led to an incredible archive of this region's highly innovative and influential builders. Here, Manuel Dall’Olio has curated stories, innovations, publications and more, all with a narrow focus on the output from Emilia Romagna.

Known to serious collectors, but still fairly hidden from the "easy" collectors, names like Marastoni, Somec and Rauler rise to the top fairly quickly; however, the important contributions of Vicini and Dosi (two builders of Marco Pantani's early bikes) lead down the rabbit hole until you find a Paletti, an Ortelli and all of a sudden you're reading a long complete history of Neri e Renzo and then you find your saved eBay searches has doubled!

It is thanks to this site that I now know the creator of the greatest 90's paint jobs... Mario Martini. The amazing stars, neon argyles and fades created by Martini graced the bikes from this region and I now know the story behind it thanks to frameteller.

The list of innovations and patents to come from this region is in itself worth a visit. Too long to list here, but incredibly important are such items as internal cables, brazed on bottle mounts, shaped steel tubing, and even rollers for training!

One common thread from E-R to Milan to Turin to the Veneto is that the artisan construct remains: local "houses" doing business to finish a hand made work of art, with little regard to systemization beyond the idea that you've worked with this chroming house or frame painter for years. It's something worthy of many business theses and a way of doing business that still exists in il bel paese. But this is also lost to many new world collectors who can't wrap their heads around the idea that the hard rules of production are thrown out the window when working in this manner. Yes, this builder used this certain lugset for this period - until he ran out, lost interest, found something new or whatever... but then eight years later found the last box of them and used them again. These are the mysteries that are best appreciated by accepting and understanding the artisan environment.

A tip of the hat to Manuel, who has researched and listed 340 historic brands to emerge from this region since the 1920's. His completeness and dedication to the project sets the standard for the archiving of and lifting the covers off of a very narrow but important focus.

To translate the site into english, you can start at the Patelli link here and navigate around. Note that some of the flash pages won't translate in this manner, but most articles will. Also, be sure to enjoy the awesome photos and publication archive.

R.I.P. Pirata, Pt. II

Argentin, Bugno, LeMond, Cipo, Gibo, Basso, Sagan... there are many others. Important champions during my lifetime. There's one difference with Pantani. He remains the legend to me not just because of his impact on Italian cycling, his tragic operatic life, his incredible fall. He is still a myth to me mainly because I watched him from afar... and thankfully, I never met him. They say you should never meet your heroes. Never got close enough to just meet him, get an autograph, or to know him as a person, friend or as one of 'my riders'.

A forum poster may have summed him up best (I know, what are the odds!?!) - Pantani had higher highs and lower lows than most, which is why his story transcends cycling and is more complex than 'just another doper' who died of an OD.

A little story from "Tutto Pantani" found here and recounted by new Italian ct Davide Cassani... in 1991, Gianni Bugno was deemed unbeatable. He had won the Giro along with three stages, finished second at the Tour, was Italian National Champion, and had just won the World Championship. Late in that year they raced the cronoscalata della Futa, both for pro's and amateurs. Bugno dominated, and Pantani crushed the amateur field but was just seconds off of Bugno's time! Cassani saw the little pirate after the race, with his cycling cap and team sweatsuit on. He wasn't happy to have dominated the race, but was obviously upset and silent, struggling internally with the fact that he had lost... to possibly the greatest pro cyclist of the day! As an amateur, no less!

So this weekend, along with celebrating the wife's birthday, putting Oragel on Dylan's first tooth, and shovelling yet more snow, I'll be watching "Tutto Pantani" and reading "The Death of Marco Pantani" again.

And, if I'm lucky enough to escape the house (we're getting our third snow of at least 8" in a week!), I'll look for a bottle of Giacobazzi Lambrusco... Marco's first big sponsor, and toast Pantani!

R.I.P. Pantani. Les Wampas tribute "Rimini"

Just found this on the eve of the tenth anniversary of Pantani's death. I still remember getting the news on RAI and sitting in utter shock. The songwriter once went to Rimini and thought it was such a sad and dreary place to go and die!

The lyrics of Rimini and the meaning are great... I especially like the last verse when the ghost of il Pirata returns with Blackbeard and their mates, crying vengeance and reducing Rimini to ashes!