Norris wrote:
> To focus on the thread.. the Sannino company have been about for some long time
> now, in Milan, producing emminently reliable and rideable road frames. The
> choice of finish was always Ferrari Red enamel.. no other. The original decals
> remained unchanged over the decades. I haven't been in touch with them since the
> MIlan Show in about 1996 or 97 when they continued to produce the same quality
> frames in all the new tubes that Columbus could put on their benches. My last
> one was a Columbus EL Extralight.
> Super people to deal with and super frames.
> Their real claim to fame as builders was that they were one of the first Italian
> companies to build for the dynamic peloton of Russian amateurs in the 60/70s,
> before the "reds" discovered Ernesto's products. They vied with builders such as
> Raymond Fletcher of Ste. Fletcher-Ducret in Paris for the Russian frame orders.
>
> As far as I can remember this Russian adffection for Sannino's products was
> immortalised in the American film "American Flyers" (still on the shelves at
> Amazon), in which a determined Kevin Costner graduated from his Schwinn
> 12-geared coasting bike
> to become an early-day Armstrong. I remember, I think, one scene where Costner
> breaks away only to be caught up by a member of the Russian team, resplendent in
> Cinelli hairnet, sporting a "go faster goatee beard" and riding a red Sannino.
>
> I suspect that like many smaller Italian builders such as Freschi, Sannino have
> found it difficult to counter the invasion of aluminium frames from the
> far-east, Why the move to Germany? Who knows, but Dancelli did it some long
> years ago.
Contrary to what was stated by Norris, Sannino has never been based in Milan. As can be seen on their web-site, they were founded in 1978 in Turin where they remain today (according to the web-site.) When I was last in Turin just less than a year ago, I was told that they were soon going to close down, so the fact that Matteo said that they 'had' moved to Germany was in no way surprising to me, regardless of what the website says. It is clearly possible that they have recently made the move and have yet to update their website accordingly. As far as building for East Bloc riders, this is new to me and was never apparent if you went to their work-shop which was about 5 km away from my old home. I remember hearing a similar story about another Italian builder: maybe Giubilato or Somec... I don't remember who.
The Sannino web-site (in Italian only) can be accessed at:
--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ