Wilier History

[YesNdeed]

Marco’s victories on a Wilier were unknown to me. This is more than I knew about my favorite frame brand to date, but more questions arise.

If Wilier stands for Viva Italia Liberata e Redenta, it’s hard to imagine an English company naming their brand that. Was it located in Italy or England? What was it called before Molin bought it? I assume they made bike frames, but the article is not clear about that.

Cool read, no less.

https://www.merlincycles.com/blog/br...-focus-wilier/

[cmg]

Cool background story. Didn't realize Mercatone Uno were on Wilier bikes.

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by YesNdeed

Marco’s victories on a Wilier were unknown to me. This is more than I knew about my favorite frame brand to date, but more questions arise.

If Wilier stands for Viva Italia Liberata e Redenta, it’s hard to imagine an English company naming their brand that. Was it located in Italy or England? What was it called before Molin bought it? I assume they made bike frames, but the article is not clear about that.

Cool read, no less.

https://www.merlincycles.com/blog/br...-focus-wilier/

Marco's birthday coming up -
Read somewhere (not sure if it is accurate) that he said "it hurts to continue, but pains me more to quit".

[Hawker]

OT I know, but if you haven't watched the Pantani film, The Accidental Death of a Cyclist, it's very well done and easy to find on several outlets. I'll have to check but wouldn't be surprised to see him on a Willier in one of the earlier scenes.

[smokersteve]

Good read. Thanks for the article
Love my Wiliers
Zero.7 and Blade

[Spaghetti Legs]

My understanding is that the company at one time was based in Trieste (hence Wilier Triestina) and the “W” is pronounced with a “v” sound since there is a lot of Austrian influence in that region (ruled by Austria for many years - maybe until end of WW1?) Bout all I know.

I have an ‘04 Alpe D’Huez which is a great bike. Pretty sure by this point in its history though, frame was made in Asia.

[grateful]

I find it funny that they call their gravel bikes “Hybrids”.

[Dino Suegiù]

There is some incorrect information in this thread.

As far as I know, Wilier was never originally an English company. That would not make much sense. It was founded in Bassano, in the Veneto in 1906. The "new, resurrected" Wilier (the original went bankrupt in the 1950's) which started in 1969 has always been in Rossano, also in the Veneto. The company was never located in Trieste.

As YesNDeed wrote in post #1, the name "Wilier" stands for "Viva Italia Liberata e Redenta". The "W" is pronounced as a "V" (so: "Vilier") not because of any Austrian influence, but because "Viva" is often written as "VV", is pronounced "v" ("vu"), and also because there is no "w" in the Italian alphabet (other than on foreign words) and because of that "w" is pronounced "double v/ doppia vu", always connected to "v".

The "Triestina" suffix was added later, in 1945, at the end of WWII, by the original owner Wilier owner Pietro Dal Molin, because of his patriotism and desire for Trieste to be re-incorporated into Italy. Trieste/Istria had been, as a crossroads city, under the rule of many countries, including Italy after WWI until it was then occupied by then-Yugoslavia. Then from 1947 until 1954 it was a "UN Free Territory", with part under US protection (like Berlin was divided into sectors). After 1954, Trieste rejoined Italy, which I guess made Dal Molin happy.

The beautiful "Cromovelato Copper" color became a Wilier trademark color, like "Gios Blue" or "Bianchi Celeste".

I do think that like Spaghetti Legs wrote the frames are now all made in Asia, and have been for quite some.

Regardless, I always liked a lot of Wilier frames. It is too bad they no longer make steel frames.

From the Wilier website:

WILIER’S HISTORY

Wilier was born in 1906 thanks to the brilliant idea of a trader from Bassano, Pietro Dal Molin, of building his own bicycles. His forge of "Steel horses" rose as a small workshop along the banks of the river Brenta, in Bassano del Grappa, and it became more and more successful by keeping up with the increasing demand for bicycles. For this reason, Dal Molin determined to set up a professional team captained by Giordano Cottur of Trieste, well-known for contending with Gino Bartali during the Bassano-Monte Grappa lap for amateurs. At the same time, according to the common feeling of uneasiness about the fate of Trieste, Dal Molin decided to associate the name of this town to that of his own company. In this way, in Autumn 1945, the name Wilier Triestina was born, distinguished by its copper-colored bicycles, which later became an authentic trade-mark. Strong in its success and thanks to the prestige it had gained, Wilier bought up a promising young cyclist in 1947: Fiorenzo Magni. Instead of being crushed in the challenge between Coppi and Bartali, Magni found a way to become the third great protagonist of Italian cycling, and won the Tour of Flanders and Giro d'Italia in 1948.

Unfortunately, after the first phase of Italian national reconstruction in the early '50s came the period of an economic miracle: people gave up bicycles in favor of scooters and motorcycles. Bicycle manufacturers suffered from this progress, and in 1952 Wilier Triestina had to close its doors. Nowadays, the glorious story of this firm and of its "copper-colored jewels" lives again thanks to the Gastaldello family from Rossano Veneto. They bought the Wilier Triestina brand name in 1969, and are proud to bring greatness to one of the best known Italian brands again, providing dozens of professional and amateur Italian and foreign teams with their bicycles. The ultimate glory was in September 2008, when Alessandro Ballan won the World Road Championship in Varese on Wilier, just ahead of his illustrious teammate Damiano Cunego. In the last decade, and especially since 2008 - due to the success of international cycling and of the new models, Wilier Triestina continues to increase and consolidate its presence in the international market, with double digit growth in revenue and production.

[YesNdeed]

Originally Posted by wc1934

"it hurts to continue, but pains me more to quit".

This gave me chills.

[YesNdeed]

Originally Posted by Dino Suegiù

There is some incorrect information in this thread.

As far as I know, Wilier was never originally an English company. That would not make much sense. It was founded in Bassano, in the Veneto in 1906. The "new, resurrected" Wilier (the original went bankrupt in the 1950's) which started in 1969 has always been in Rossano, also in the Veneto. The company was never located in Trieste.

As YesNDeed wrote in post #1, the name "Wilier" stands for "Viva Italia Liberata e Redenta". The "W" is pronounced as a "V" (so: "Vilier") not because of any Austrian influence, but because "Viva" is often written as "VV", is pronounced "v" ("vu"), and also because there is no "w" in the Italian alphabet (other than on foreign words) and because of that "w" is pronounced "double v/ doppia vu", always connected to "v".

The "Triestina" suffix was added later, in 1945, at the end of WWII, by the original owner Wilier owner Pietro Dal Molin, because of his patriotism and desire for Trieste to be re-incorporated into Italy. Trieste/Istria had been, as a crossroads city, under the rule of many countries, including Italy after WWI until it was then occupied by then-Yugoslavia. Then from 1947 until 1954 it was a "UN Free Territory", with part under US protection (like Berlin was divided into sectors). After 1954, Trieste rejoined Italy, which I guess made Dal Molin happy.

The beautiful "Cromovelato Copper" color became a Wilier trademark color, like "Gios Blue" or "Bianchi Celeste".

I do think that like Spaghetti Legs wrote the frames are now all made in Asia, and have been for quite some.

Regardless, I always liked a lot of Wilier frames. It is too bad they no longer make steel frames.

From the Wilier website:

WILIER’S HISTORY

Wilier was born in 1906 thanks to the brilliant idea of a trader from Bassano, Pietro Dal Molin, of building his own bicycles. His forge of "Steel horses" rose as a small workshop along the banks of the river Brenta, in Bassano del Grappa, and it became more and more successful by keeping up with the increasing demand for bicycles. For this reason, Dal Molin determined to set up a professional team captained by Giordano Cottur of Trieste, well-known for contending with Gino Bartali during the Bassano-Monte Grappa lap for amateurs. At the same time, according to the common feeling of uneasiness about the fate of Trieste, Dal Molin decided to associate the name of this town to that of his own company. In this way, in Autumn 1945, the name Wilier Triestina was born, distinguished by its copper-colored bicycles, which later became an authentic trade-mark. Strong in its success and thanks to the prestige it had gained, Wilier bought up a promising young cyclist in 1947: Fiorenzo Magni. Instead of being crushed in the challenge between Coppi and Bartali, Magni found a way to become the third great protagonist of Italian cycling, and won the Tour of Flanders and Giro d'Italia in 1948.

Unfortunately, after the first phase of Italian national reconstruction in the early '50s came the period of an economic miracle: people gave up bicycles in favor of scooters and motorcycles. Bicycle manufacturers suffered from this progress, and in 1952 Wilier Triestina had to close its doors. Nowadays, the glorious story of this firm and of its "copper-colored jewels" lives again thanks to the Gastaldello family from Rossano Veneto. They bought the Wilier Triestina brand name in 1969, and are proud to bring greatness to one of the best known Italian brands again, providing dozens of professional and amateur Italian and foreign teams with their bicycles. The ultimate glory was in September 2008, when Alessandro Ballan won the World Road Championship in Varese on Wilier, just ahead of his illustrious teammate Damiano Cunego. In the last decade, and especially since 2008 - due to the success of international cycling and of the new models, Wilier Triestina continues to increase and consolidate its presence in the international market, with double digit growth in revenue and production.

This is great clarification. Thanks for taking the time to inform the thread. I have no idea why the Merlin article is citing English origin, but might be worth sending them an email inquiring.

[YesNdeed]

Originally Posted by Hawker

OT I know, but if you haven't watched the Pantani film, The Accidental Death of a Cyclist, it's very well done and easy to find on several outlets. I'll have to check but wouldn't be surprised to see him on a Willier in one of the earlier scenes.

It's fantastic! And quite sad. A must watch for any cyclist. I made my way into road biking long after Marco's reign, so it was very revealing in many ways. Yes, perhaps there was evidence of Wilier sponsorship, but I clearly missed it.

[schwa86]

I went to the willier factory when I did my Italian cycling trip with Bill speckman near bassano del grappa a few year ago. There was a pretty cool museum-ish area with bikes dating back many decades, including one that had a hand operated rear derailleur (eg you manually switched the gear at the hub - as I recall you had choice of two gears). I think I posted a picture here shortly afterwards. There were good pics of pantani and one of his bikes.

It seemed to me that presently there was not much being made there — lots of carbon frames from China hanging from the ceiling.

[schwa86]

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=128604

[grateful]

Wow, this thread led me to a World Wide Web search for Scandium, which led me to this with a BIN around $350.00.

It would be cool to have one of this in the stable for cheap for occasional grins. What an opportunity to try bikes from the Italian Masters without breaking the bank.

Now, I am off to search the WWW for a $350.00 Pegoretti!

Chow,
Grateful

[colker]

Originally Posted by grateful

Wow, this thread led me to a World Wide Web search for Scandium, which led me to this with a BIN around $350.00.

It would be cool to have one of this in the stable for cheap for occasional grins. What an opportunity to try bikes from the Italian Masters without breaking the bank.

Now, I am off to search the WWW for a $350.00 Pegoretti!

Chow,
Grateful

This one is a pinarello.