Fascinating stuff .. reading all these very learned and obviously heart-felt contributions.. and all to do with a bike frame. Another thing I have learned in my short time as a member of the List is just how seriously many List members take their interest in all things italian and for that matter ,lightweight. I think that most of us Brits are a little more laid-back, and it matters little if the time-worn hands of Ernesto himself never stroked a file across the lugs of our Arabesques, or flushed in a bit of spare brazing material with the tip of his torch.
I reckon that, twenty years on, we will be asking whether in fact these Italian frames were actually the "real deal" i.e. made in Italy. Globalisation will have, already has, changed the sourcing of much that we now buy new. Over here in a Europe that is bursting out eastwards, with the ten new countries just added on, companies in the "old Europe" of the original EEC, are making haste to set up factories in those new European territories, where labour is cheap.
Near my home, in that ancient city of York, a producer of fine chocolates within the city walls, since 1649, has just announced the closure of the plant,, with the loss of around 700 jobs.. all future manufacturing to take place in Poland.
So it came as no surprise yesterday, when I read that the Italian company Nuova Cicli Conti e Ciocc srl Italia has transferred its activities to Poland.
Is that Ciocc.. the real deal? I mean .. is it an Italian one?
Norris Lockley..drawing a new boundary in my atlas of Europe