Chuck,
I remember well the discussion of Balilla. The point is
that, after a couple of generations, a name or term will lose
its direct association with the original person/place/event or
meaning. I suspect that the manufacturer of Balilla brakes
continued to use the name because, in their mind, it still
conveyed a sense of strength and and an association with
racing.
Thought I was being helpful,
Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia
> > (snip) Anyway, the name "Montlhery" became
> > a sort of by-word for speedy racing, sort of like Ballila
> in
> > Italy.
>
> Not an Italian race track but part of the Italian fascist pre
> WWII.
> Here's the research Aldo did on Balilla:
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Subject:
> why the name "Balilla" [classicrendezvous]
> Date:
> Tue, 25 Jul 2000 14:01:31 -0400
> From:
> "swampmtn" <swampmtn@siscom.net>
> To:
> "classic rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@listbot.com>
>
> Our recent discussion of Balilla and Universal brakes lead me
> to do a
> bit of research on the history of the word "balilla". Here's
> what I found.
>
> Balilla is an Italian folk hero, a famous 18th century
> Genovese
> "nationalist". In mid 1746 the Austians were in occupation
> of Genoa. A
> young boy named Balilla is said to have thrown a pebble at a
> Austrian
> official, thus beginning a revolt which saw the Austrian
> occupying
> forces withdraw from Genoa, and the eventual victory by the
> Genoese
> people. There's even a statue of Balilla, throwing the
> pebble, in Genoa.
>
> Thus you get Balilla bicycle brakes, FIAT "Balilla"
> automobiles, the
> Italian fascist "Balilla" organization (which trained
> children to become
> "good" little fascists), etc.
> The surprising thing is that Balilla continued to use the
> name after the
> war.
>
> Balilla's "tipo Corsa 61" is their centerpull brakeset,
> introduced in
> 1961. They also made sidepulls brakes in aluminum (nice) and
> steel (awful).
>
> I have some lovely pics of the tipo 61 brakeset, if anyone is
> interested.
>
> Aldo Ross
> "love the bike parts, not the politics"
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