[CR]Italian "artiste" builders - Zanardi

(Example: Framebuilders:Dario Pegoretti)

From: "Norris Lockley" <Norris.Lockley@btopenworld.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:27:04 -0000
Subject: [CR]Italian "artiste" builders - Zanardi

Shucks.. I'm improving with this computer gadget.. actually managed to find the jpegs of the Zanardis, Both the bikes and the builder look very workmanlike.. and speek of a high level of skill ,but as Steven wrote, much of his time Zanardi was building for the love of the craft.. not to make a living..and such things matter enormously, There are ceratin processes any self-respecting frame-builder would carry out as routine to ensure that the product of his labours was a reliable attractive machine with form following function. Any embellishment of that functional frame is just that - embellishment.. and it serves little in making the bike ride any better.. it just looks prettier.. and expresses more of the personality of the builder or, in certain cases of the customer....and often about their bank balance.

During my recent visit to France I chanced to find in a charity yard.. exposed to whatever weather the climate of Provence could throw at it, what I consider to one of the finest frames that I have EVER seen. and I really mean that... it was just elegance personified.. in a very functional way.. if that isn't some form of contradiction. Hand-painted in dove grey enamel it just had such poise and balance and proportion.. it just had to ride beautifully. As for the finishing off of the lug-work, reminiscent of Nervex Serie Legeres., but cast not pressed, it was mind blowingly finessed..Just do anything to that frame, add a decal, lug lining ... if you can indeed find the point where the lugs stop and the tubes start.. and the magical effect would be lost. It's sheer poetry just standing there.. I just hope the music's just as great when I get the chance to ride it... But i have no doubts whatsoever on that score...

One further point on the Zanardi.. and the builder's claim to being influenced by his visit to France. I reckon that certain French manufacturers were using fully sloping fork crowns long before Cino Cinelli thought about them. One of my other second-hand finds is an ex-T-de-F Alcyon from the mid 30s..just like the one shown in line form in the company's catalogue for that time. The fork crown looks to be just a single plate arched from one side down to the other. I'm certain it is cast...but whether it has "legs" intenal to the narrow fork blades I am unsure. At one time it had been nickel-plated. I thought about restoring the frame.. and that way I would have got a chance to look at the structure of the fork... but there's just too much age-related patina there.. talking to me... and saying "...just leave me alone.. to grow older gracefully." So be it.

I reckon that this robust cast or forged crown could have been the fore-runner of the two-plate ones manufactured in their workshops by the likes of Jo Routens in France and Harry Rensch at Paris Cycles in London.. these later ones needing the second lower bracing plate to stiffen up the structure..

That's my theory...but I'm equally sure that there's many more plausible ones out there on the List.

Norris Lockley... Settle UK

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