Nosepolcity Criterium

And finally, here it is. Scheduled for 2 December. Though we might be forced to do it on the following Sunday since weather forecasts aren't very good...




Fixit&Carveit

matitesonfissà art (real art)

These are some amazing drawings, in my opinion. I really love the chain-brain, that's just amazing. Someone else might have done it before, I don't care, I had never seen it and it's gorgeous. And I love the light bulb, and I love the cogs with the name of our group inside...Giacomo Licen-Porro is the artist behind them. The man is quite gifted: left aside the drawing talent which is so evident, Giacomo is a marathon runner too. Not just one who runs marathons, he's the kind of guy who actually WINS marathons...And he's got family too. He's filled his life with positive things to do, me thinks. 

A friend of the Prof, of course. It was his idea to ask Giacomo if he would be willing to draw a few sketches for a possible logo of "matitesonfissà" (there's been several designs proposed lately, some good and some...well). When and if there will be an official logo, I don't care. And I don't care which logo. The drawings you see below are my idea of a logo and I'll definitely use them for a t-shirt sooner or later. I absolutely love them. 

Am getting more and more convinced the Prof has some inborn talent in spotting out beauty. Be it a slow-motion video of absolute poetry, an object, a piece of clothing, some kind of weird design or traditional tool, the man's got an instinct and can pick up the scent of beauty a thousand miles away, I guess. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder so maybe it's just a question of shared taste...

Anyway, bring joy to your eyes with Giacomo's drawings:

matitesamontar?

Had almost forgotten these clips, shot when I turned from my old bike to the Pelizzoli frame.

CriTSerium?

We've decided to organize a critterium. No serious organization by the way, just trying to give it a vague aura of respectability, with a track, a day and time to meet, as well as a little money contribution to participate (money = beers). Perhaps we'll even manage to have some kind of trophey...We'll see. I like the track, I like the spot we found. No 180° bends which is a pity but still, there's a nice unexpected curve into a sort of short-cut among two roads and we decided to include that. It's super short, but we're  super novices, so it's fine...

We have no traning, no idea, almost no organisation. And it could end up just the 5 of us meeting on Sunday. It will be fun, for sure. Nothing to do with a serious critterium. Which we will eventually organize...It will require phone calls, sponsors, and some extra work to make it happen properly. And if it turns out as expected, racing will be the last of our thoughts since no one among us will be able to compete with the guys who will participate. But that's just dreaming. And by the way, I actually dream more about an alleycat than a critterium. An alleycat would be even more complicated to organise. In the meantime, reality grounds our feet to the circuit you see below and to the non-existing speed you can appreciate in the video.

The bridge, the train and the church

listen to yourself. listen to your fears. they have nothing to do with who you are. where you come from. they come from what could be. listen to yourself. you think of what could be as time goes by and takes away what you are now. now counts. it always did. you always knew. what you did, the mistakes that could take you where you don't want to be, that can't be changed. what will happen, what fate will turn that coin heads or tails, you can't predict.

there is only now. just the bridge, the train and the church. and you are in the midst of it all and your legs go up and down and your heart pumps in and out and your breath exhales and inhales and your eyes adjust. darkness is a friend and warms your soul. pedals are a friendly enemy to attract and push away, on and on. your challenge is now. what you were seconds ago does not count. where you will be months from now does not count.

focus on life. feel your instrument as it helps you climb. there IS a smile inside you and you know it. just set it free. don't even think about it. think heart, muscle, pedal and soul. if you see her say hello, she might be in Tangier. she might think i've forgotten her. go tell her it isn't so.

lights they pass you by. lights and people. people and their thoughts. they look at you and you feel proud as they feel puzzled. muscles will take you there. lungs will lead the way. heart will never fail. the soul will do the rest.

close your eyes, enjoy the ride. one ride. one way only. just once. everything is now. and now you are on track.

Timelapse Town 7/11

I hope I won't bore you guys with this timelapse crave of mine but it's really fun to think about situations in which such a video technique can be used. Everything's been already done and everything's been already seen and we're fine with that...But one thing is watching videos and another is shooting them. Obviously it's much more fun, much more complicated and much more interesting and satisfying when you're happy with the result...This might not be the case but I'm, well, sort of archiving & documenting my progresses here. And by the way what the fuck, why am I explaining so much, this space was meant for me to publish what I want in the first place.
A night ride around town. Blurred streets and lights, difficult to understand anything even if you're from Trieste. The only place you can properly see is the door of the Boston Boulevard...

Ocio che Piovi

This is a quite funny shot in Koper Toni's garage. I am experimenting with timelapse videos and seeing where it takes...Right after this shot a semi-epic bike ride began..with Koper Toni apparently in need of huge climbs to recover from a long first month experience at Genuino - Naturally fast food.

Pliskovica Tour

Had said I would have eventually edited the few videos we shot during the memorable tour in Slovenia and here it is. A quick, non-cronological condensed summary of that day.

Just like the old days

A Sunday tour as we used to organise them some time ago. After lunch meeting at Salone degli Incanti, ride towards the Costiera, right-turn up heading for Via del Pucino, quick stop for a video, then up Santa Croce where the "Tour de Frasque" (copyright Simone Sandri) begins: 3 (maybe 4?) osmize to test our liver with boiled eggs and spritz (white wine + sparkling water), then back dow to town around 7pm. Just like the old days. With the Prof and Ricciu but most importantly with Billy and Simo by my side (welcome back boys). There's a few videos to edit but sadly one of the longest wheelies ever seen (who but Billy could do it?) isn't on the footage...it's for our memories only...

Cleaning brings back memories

Waked up this morning positive I would clean up my flat and I did. Laundry, washed the floors, vacuum cleaner, bathroom and bathtub, kitchen. And while cleaning the living room these pics popped out from a box. Analog takes shot with my Praktica I - shame on me - use so little. Pics of when I had just finished my first, beloved fixed gear. At the time when Koper Toni got me into this fascination and beauty of become one with the bike. At the time when my first thought was to build one for the love of my life. At the time when I would put my bike on the roof of my car, drive from the hills to town, park the car and roam the city with my first fixed gear. At the time when we would play bike polo. Me and Giacomo and Annalisa and Andrea. No one was riding fixies then, not that it makes any difference or makes us more important or special.

Just a great memory when I look at these.

Thanks Prof

...for yet another night's riding. For not being in the mood until the ass grounds on the saddle. For stopping here after the final climb...




Fixit&Carveit

The Bike Stand - part two

...and here's the wonderful job done by Simone the bar waiter whom I discovered is a carpenter too! Not bad right?




Fixit&Carveit

Of Steel - Framebuilder Pegoretti

Are they disappearing or are they finally coming back? Will their legacy be handed down to future generations? I see these videos and I love them not just because I love bikes. There's this "extinction" feeling that makes you feel like you are looking at an endangered species. And anybody looking at an endangered species feels sort of privileged. "It's a rare thing to see, it's something special and it won't last for long". Well let me tell you something: it also feels like SHIT to see people with such a gift having to worry for their survival. It's nonsense they are scarcely considered artists. It's awesome that the new bicycle revival flamed by fixed gears have brought such artisans back where they deserve but it  feels crap they might disappear again when the fashion is over. The wall street fuckers creating virtual money out of thin air and the exquisite artist carving a frame from steel or a drawer from wood...An idea brought to real life versus a number treacherously inflated. How come it's so difficult to understand the difference?

Pliskovica Tour Teaser

...Just a fun, quick teaser which made me think about a potential edit of the footage from last Sunday's ride. Could be working on that very soon, we'll see...

The Longest Ride...

...to date. Yep. Last Sunday morning at 10am a much anticipated, well planned (were it not for the lunch break...) and wonderfully-blessed-by-a-perfect-weather bike trip rolled out. Destination: Slovenia, with its ups and downs and beautiful scenarios and peaceful roads (left aside a couple bitchy car drivers, as usual).

The best thing of this truly unforgettable tour is that finally we were a dozen riders. Not just three, or two as it often happens. Fixed gears, single speeds, racing bikes...It wasn't just hardcore fixies but that didn't matter at all. What mattered was that we succeeded in creating a group that was happy to ride roughly 80km enjoying the ride, having lots of fun and getting to know each other. It might not happen anymore, we might not be able to do a another tour with more than 5 riders all together but it did happen once! Which is proof of the possibility for it to happen again.

Yes we did loose a couple riders along the road. Some just couldn't make it all the way, some had to head back to Italy at a certain time of the day. Some had to stop for food, which as said above was perhaps the only negative note, if we can call it that way: It wasn't such a big deal in the end for most of us, especially the Prof who had eaten something like 5 energetic chocolate bars and could have, probably, pedaled for another 24 hours in a row illuminating the road at night with his own eyes... So when we did finally stop in an Osmica, craving for food was at a climax and we had to be careful not to mistake an arm for a slice of prosciutto...

I must thank every single one of them for this wonderful memory: A Sunday ride that will be remembered by the Matitesonfissà members. I'll end this one with a short video which epitomizes the whole mood of the trip: a doped Prof leading a pack of growling monsters.

Thanks guys. Way too much appreciated.

Matitesonfissà - Volume Two

I was having problems finding my video in youtube, it would never come up in the search results...But the prof explained me the importance of tags, and I was able to feel stupid about it and fix the problem...And now I can share it here too.

Bike stand on its way

So as usual I have breakfast in a bar right under my workplace. One morning, I discover that the guy who works there is good at doing objects in wood. He loves my bike and asks me if he can do a bike stand for me in wood. I say "SURE!" So now that I gave him all the necessary measures, I can't wait to see what it will look like...

Back from Silence

It's been a long hot summer and three months have passed now. Why haven't I written anything? It's very simple: 2 months of hectic work, 1 month of peaceful holiday and here we are. Back again.

The best way to begin September is with an old style ride and that's exactly what me, the Prof and Koper Toni did yesterday. A long climb (for the first time we climbed up Strada per Opicina, generally a favourite of ours to risk our lives at night with no lights and lots of speed...) from the sea level to the Karst hills some 400mt above. A ride to the nearest osmiza, a drink and a boiled egg and a rush back down on Strada del Friuli.

During my last week on holiday I even had the time to shoot a couple pictures of my bike in a cool scenario: an abandoned military base. Check these out.

Fixerati Antwerp

I recently flew to Antwerp and discovered Fixerati. Now I know what some of you are going to think: "hey, the guy's got money.." The guy has no money at all, the guy simply had the luck to travel in the name of the company he works for to attend an event in Antwerp and had a free morning last Saturday wondering around the city of diamonds. Well, Antwerp isn't just the city of diamonds of course. Without cheating and searching on wikipedia, I'll just tell you what I think about it: it's got some amazing historical buildings, especially around the "Cathedral of Our Lady" and if you ever go there I warmly recommend you pay a visit to the Kathedraal Café, loaded with hundreds of sacred wooden statues all around the place, and with a good selection of Belgian beers of course. It's got an awesome port on the river Scheldt, close to the sea, with some amazing old warehouses inside. It's got beautiful restaurants and cafès which really prove that Belgians have great taste for design and furniture. And it's got some great, great shops, like RA Destination Store and Your Concept Store where I met Ken.

Ken's a fixed gear pal who works there. Extremely friendly, very good in his work in my opinion and terribly helpful in directing me towards Fixerati during what were the last available couple hours before my train would leave from Antwerpen Centraal. I knew there was a fixed gear shop in Antwerp, I had seen it from the taxi window the last time I was in Antwerp, while heading to the airport. But I didn't manage to find it. Then I stumbled upon Your, stepped in and found a really great (now that I've read it all I can confirm...and I'll write about it soon here...) fixed gear book. I head to the counter and Ken sees me with the book in my hand and bursts out: "Oh, that's the best fixed gear book I've ever read! You know I had the chance to ride the Eddie Merckx bike that's featured inside? The one he did the record with in Mexico in the 70s?" and he flips through the pages and shows me.

I say the only thing I remember about Eddie Mercx, which is what Mr Giovanni Pelizzoli told me: "you know he was maniac about the saddle? He used to move it up and down all the time, always searching for the perfect position". Ken appreciates and we exchange a few words on the fixed gear scene in Antwerp. I actually tell him that the fixed gear club in Antwerp I had looked up in the internet has such a funny name, FIGA. I explain him that in Italian it's a slang for vagina and he can't believe, and understands why I would love to have a FIGA tshirt...

Then the question pops out: "Are there any interesting fixed gear shops in Antwerp?". Ken's eyes light up, "Oh, sure, you got to check this out, it's ten minutes away - everything's ten minutes away in Antwerp - and it's called Fixerati. It's not far from the Cathedral. When you go in tell Daan that Ken sends you". He gives me a map and marks the spot with a pen.

Fixerati's a really great shop for fixed gear aficionados, and it immediately clears out doubts about the fixed scene in Antwerp: there's people riding over here. When I enter the shop there's a young chap with a Cinelli MASH frame waiting for his turn together with several others who park their bikes outside and wait for Daan (if I'm not mistaken from what Ken told me, he's the owner).  I quickly present myself while Daan's busy with a client and tell him I've got a blog and would love to shoot a few pictures for a feature. He's glad and so I can wonder around taking pictures of everything.

There's a terribly beautiful Eddie Merckx orange and white frame mounted single speed, a super agressive Cinelli MASH frame on display, and a DODICI frame exactly like the one of my friend Lele (among other Dodici frames I saw in the shop), only this ones' light blue with yellow writings. What also strikes me are the FUJI frames in the shop. I had never seen them in person and they are really beautiful, if you like aluminum and carbon frames. There's a jaw-dropping black Colnago Pista mount and above it lots of aerospoke rims. There's some BROTHERS CYCLES frames on the wall too, and some gorgeous bike clothes. I had found a really beautiful shirt but wrong size. Damn.

A bit like Tokyo Fixed Gear in London (at least the old 14 Bike Co. shop I've been to), at the center of the shop there's an exposition block for a whole variety of parts going from hubs to tools, seat posts, lights, pedals, caps and more and at far left end Daan's put the "mechanics" section to fix and build bikes.

Didn't have the chance to speak with Daan since he was surrounded by clients. He only had the time to give me his business card since I told him I would have loved to send him the feature as soon as i published it. So Daan, here it is. You should be proud of your shop, it's really a cool place selling some cool stuff. Would have loved to ask you what you personally ride and where, but I'll leave that for the next time...

And thanks Ken: just like in the movies you gave me the right tip at the last available moment. I really had to rush to the station afterwards.

The Pelizzoli Tour

I'm sitting in my couch and I just can't take my eyes off of it. 4 days have passed and nothing has changed. My Pelizzoli frame hangs in the middle of my (small) living room and sends me powerful good vibes and visions of what I will be doing with it. Sometimes I stand up and take a close view to this tailored piece of handcrafted forged steel that fits my body like a glove. I caress it just as if it were a horse. I tell him we'll be riding long, winding roads together, I tell him that I'll be treating it as it deserves, that the pieces that will go on it will be worthy of its class and perfection. I desperately crave to jump on my new bicycle but I've made an oath not to pedal it until every single piece is here.

Going to Bergamo to collect the frame directly from the hands of the maker himself was perhaps one of the smartest moves I could do. I must thank Giacomo for this, I was a little doubtful about the long ride. I could have received the frame via courier for much less money that what we spent in this trip, but he told me right away "we got to meet this man and see the place". That was exactly what the little voice in my head was telling me since the first time I began looking in the web for infos about frame builders and stumbled upon Giovanni Pelizzoli interviews. I had to meet the man and see the place.

Nothing tells you you've reached the spot if you don't notice a  4 tandem bicycle lying outside the door together with a couple abandoned frames. It's a sort of warehouse with a red door. When you open it and your eyes adjust to the changement of light oh boy...oh, oh boy. It's time to smile with your eyes and feel that same funny feeling back then, when your dad would take you to the fun fair to shoot the gun and drive the  bumper cars. Your head says "I don't want to leave this place, at least until I've explored every single square meter and learned what every single one of these machines does. I want to learn, I want to work here."

Giovanni Pelizzoli is the kind of person that will make you feel at home after a few seconds. Even if you don't know him he'll be talking at you about anything in such a relaxed way that you' won't be able to avoid thinking that you met him the day before. He smiles at us, a quick shake of hands and he's already got a frame in his hands explaining who he made it for and why. Proud of his work (and who could move any objection to that...) and full of life. He's 70 years old, has defeated cancer and has the energy and the enthusiasm of a kid. When Giovanni leaves for a half an hour Alessandro, the young man behind the launch of the Pelizzoli website that opened the way to a whole new generation of clients as ourselves with fixed gear bikes, amuses us with stories of Giovanni, telling us how unpredictable he can be and how jealous he is of his frame building techniques to the point he quits working if you stare too much at him while he's welding. That's because he comes from a time when frame builders were few and each had their own secrets when building a frame. Preserving one's own technique meant the survival in the market and Giovanni continues with that mentality. Like a magician he won't tell you his tricks...

While Giovanni is away for a while Alessandro is extremely kind in offering himself with great kindness to the dozens of questions we throw at him. He clears out several doubts we had about frames and about bicycles and makes us feel at ease while behind us a very careful collaborator of Pelizzoli thoroughly examines for the last time my frame searching for imperfections in the paint.

Alessandro is also responsible for another wonderful reality here in Bergamo that some of you might already know about if you're into vintage bikes and professional renovation of old frames, not to talk about collectors items. In association with a friend of his they launched Eroica Cicli, a wonderful initiative that sells online beautiful vintage bicycles. I won't even go into details, I'll just tell you that we've been in their "headquarters" and it was like stepping into a secret vault where the treasures are...Luckily our pockets were almost empty because had we stepped inside loaded with money, one thing is sure: the money gone we would have left with all that money could buy...

Finally Giovanni returns and I have the chance to interview him. Something I had been thinking for quite some time. I had read so much about him but all the questions were always very dull and predictable. I knew the story about how he got into bikes at 14 years old, about his father, "Il Ciocc" and about Claudio Corti and Gianni Bugno...I wanted to know something about the man. So, inspired by legendary Bernard Pivot and his questionnaire created for Buillon de Culture and Apostrophe, here's my Pelizzoli interview, made while sitting face to face with Giovanni, surrounded by frames:

What is your favourite word?

GP: Love

What is your least favourite word?

GP: dishonest

What is your favourite colour?

GP: Silver

What is your least favourite colour?

GP: Purple

What profession other than yours would have liked to attempt?

GP: I would have to answer insulating, something I used to do as a kid before beginning to build frames. It really gave me that methodology and attention to details, and taking all measures and planning everything before getting started. Something that really turned out to be extremely useful when I switched to frame building. You would plan and sketch on paper first, then see your plan come to life and become something real. If I hadn't fallen in love with bicycles, I would have certainly continued in that business.

What profession would you never want to attempt?

GP: Working in a mine or in a foundry

What is your favorite curse word?

GP: Though it certainly is a curse word it's not that offensive. It's in dialect: "figù". Figù is a sort of funny but not offensive way of identifying a guy as some kind of a playboy, but we use it with people we know in a very friendly way. When I call someone at Columbus or Guerciotti I tell them "hi figù!". In the near future I would like to produce something and call it like that.

Who was the cyclist you had the chance to know personally that impressed you the most?

GP: I would have to answer Claudio Corti, who brought a bike of the brand I used to have at the time, Ciocc, to winning a world championship in Venezuela. But I have also a good relationship with Gianni Bugno for whom I made bikes too, as well as with the French cyclist Richard Virenque. I would drive him around with the Team Polti car and he would always tell me "give gas! go go go!" There's so many memories I have..Savoldelli who won the Giro d'Italia, Celestino...I could go on for quite a while. I have wonderful memories also of women cyclists like Fabiana Luperini who won 5 Giro d'Italia and 3 Tour de France or Alessandra Cappellotto who was the first woman to win a world championship in Italy with one of my bikes.

What opinion do you have about this explosion of the fixed gear bicycle culture?

GP: I feel that who builds these bikes today aren't real riders. They don't know what real cycling is. Going downhill without brakes to me is total recklessness. But from what I know it's something that non-professional riders do. The movement on the bike is so different...I call them reckless, though they are certainly quite skilled reckless guys (editor's note: he points at Alessandro). One of the problems I see is in the quality of the bikes. Outside Italy people into fixed gears pay great attention at the quality of the frame, the quality of the steel, if it's Columbus or something else, the components...in Italy it seems to me that everyone interested in a fixed gear bike wants to spend 500 euros and have a complete, good bike in their hands. That's impossible. And if you want to spend 500 euros and are happy to ride a frame that can be nothing but built with water pipes, well I think that's completely insane. In any case, it's a world apart because real cyclists don't go around with a fixed gear bike.

Therefore it's a legend or a myth the story about professional cyclists training in the first couple of months of the season with fixed gears?

GP: It used to be like that! Today there's this new figure, the personal trainer. I hope they won't get offended but to me they represent the death of the cyclist. The real champion, the real talent, knows how to listen to his own body. He understands where the limit is and acts just like a fruit plant, that gives fruit in the right season and takes a rest when it's the right time. A cyclist must have the time to recharge the batteries. When the season ends in September, he must rest at least until January before getting back on the bike. What I have just said is deemed like prehistoric by these so called personal trainers with their computers and their numbers. They think they know how to put a cyclist on a bike uniquely on the basis of what their computers tell them. I believe there are very few people in the world who know how to find the right position of a cyclist on a frame. It's not just numbers, those are necessary of course, it's a question of sensibility too, of watching the cyclist on the bike and understanding how he sits on the saddle and how he feels comfortable on it. Balancing a rider isn't a question of numbers, it's mainly a question of facts. In my opinion what these personal trainers do is simply squeeze cyclists like lemons until they are totally wasted. And then they throw them away.

The sound you love the most?

GP: The sound of silence.

The sound you hate the most?

GP: When there's a racket or chaos. Even though I'm a very loud and happy person I've begun to appreciate silence. I can't even go to the stadium anymore, or go where there's loads of people. I appreciate when I'm over here on my own welding frames, even though I love my collaborators, especially a guy called Alessandro (editor's note: he says that winking). I'm happy like that. I believe I'll die welding one day.

What turns you on?

GP: Other people's happiness

What turns you off?

GP: Lies

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

GP:  I'd like him to tell me "well done Ciocc, all of that bullshit you did had its own sense in the end"




Thank you Giovanni, thank you Alessandro. The best trips are those that end with the desire to go back. And we certainly will go back.

USEFUL LINKS:

Pelizzoli World
Via Enrico Fermi 24035 Curn (BG) Italy

Eroica Cicli
email: info@eroicacicli.com

Fixed Bergamo