rhm

Nicolo Amati
Giuseppe Guarneri
Antonio Stradivari

Giacomo 1 

Oh brother, just when you think you know all about the great Italian builders, along come names you never heard of. This is a job for Google...

shoota 

Stradivarius ring a bell?

Wileyone 

I think he made Fiddles.

repechage

Sentimental favorite for me, I think his name does bring up that tangent of great builders who propped up the great names.
Masi did build, then brought in a range of others who were quite capable in their own right but for various reasons were sub contractors.
From report, Falerio did not have all his subs do everything, not all made forks for instance. There was rivalry set up, got to squeeze the best out when the Lira was limited.

My guess Colnago and others did the same.

repechage

Colnago did have a "lesser" interval. I do give him credit for knowing how to market smartly over time, move with the industry and turn cost saving attributes into features followed by others... The Precisa fork a good example.
The frames I have seen without paint are better than I expected. He understood how to design an enthusiastic road race bike.
He experimented.

Kent T

I put Faliero Masi's work over Ernesto Colnago's (though I love older Colnagos)
Cino Cinelli
Tulio Campagnolo
Antonio Stradivarius
Antonio Vivaldi

Wileyone 

Don't Forget:

Carmine Galante
Sam Giancana
Vito Genovese
Frank Scalice
Joe Pesci

crank_addict

Joe and Sam were pretty good riders. I sometimes get them confused with Bernie Hino.

eja_ bottecchia

Andy_K 

I'm certainly unqualified to answer, but I will say that especially for the better known of the legendary builders like Ugo De Rosa and Ernesto Colnago it's rather optimistic to believe that the bike you might own with that person's name on it was actually built by that person. And for someone like Giovanni Pinarello it's bordering on romantic foolishness.

That's not to say Ugo and Ernesto weren't worthy of their reputation. I'm sure they were. It's also not to say their companies didn't produce outstanding bikes. They did. It's just to say that owning a De Rosa doesn't really give me any information about Ugo's skill as a frame builder.

wawine

1987

FRAMEBUILDERS Archivi - FRAMETELLER

Ravi1990

1. Giuseppe Pelà (Joseph/Josef/Yusuf) nicknamed "Pino", from the gates of Grosseto like his almuni/apprentice really from Grosetto, Irio Tommasini. Pelà brazed for Gios, Masi and Merckx personal racing frames ;-) faemino
2. Giovanni "Vanni" Losa from Erba, Como - later moved to Vittuone, Milano
the two master of brazing. (Quantity & quality)
3. maybe Luigi Gilardi (@Bianchi for the campinissimo! and later for Dreher and then @ Gios [Brooklyn] {the original blu from perfetti chweing gum} for Roger De Vlaeminck) or Umbero Chiesa (Gimondi rode Chiesa frames early in his career) ;-) (later master of my beloved Rivola - founders second son Gianni Rivola and Bruno Fantini)
4. Rivola
5. Francesco Freschi - viva the fastback seatcluster

sorry for
Licinio Marastoni, Lino Messori, Bruno Fantini, Angelo Picchio, Corrado Partella, Piero Serena, Fanini and Sedazzari

Ravi1990

Losa also build frames for Felice Branca in the early 70s. Branca was the mechanic of the Filotex team and of the professional rider cuore matto / crazy heart Franco Bitossi.
Got a probably '71 or older Del Sante frame from Parma, by Losa - try to buld it up for my mom, whose father originates from Parma ).
Branca had also frames build by the brother-inlaw.. Volta at milano first later by Pelà in Turin and the Losa

joesch

Yes I think you may know some frame building history not based on the top name companies.

RE: Giuseppe Pelà

Tommasini worked under and received guidance from his friend and mentor Giuseppe Pelà, Italy's premier frame builders. Pelà built magnificient winning frames for many top Italian and European professionals, and upon his retirement in 1972 passed on his traditions and skills to Tommasini. Tommasini has carried on these traditions and has added innovations along the way.

ref: Tommasini - WOI Encyclopedia Italia

jamesdak 

No Paletti mentioned??

repechage

A resurfaced thread.
top five Italian builders I think is near impossible.
possibly the prompt of other famous Italians mentioned not related to bicycles.

there were brands that had influence over others in Italy, overall design, geometry, marketing. There are brands that helped move others in a direction. The influencers.

my hunch is when the Milan show reigned in Italy the other "builders" took note with the work in the adjoining booths.

not really a signifier of a great bike but I have not seen a Italian bike before 1970 with the signature on the top tube other than Masi.
soon after Pogliaghi added that and so did others, Colnago being quite late to that group.

who started the engraved top of the fork crown? Savvy ideas propagate.

Ravi1990

near impossible. true!
craftsmen are vendors...

Coppi rode Gilardi frames under Bianchi as Vlaeminck rode Gilardi frames under Gios...
strange pattern
why Valsassina build first for Bianchi and then was took over by Cino Cinelli?
why Pelà frames for Gios, Benotto, and Masi?
yes Faliero Masi is toscano too like Pelà and his apprentice Irio Tommasini
https://www.ilgiunco.net/2022/03/07/...lle-due-ruote/




'In 1948,' Irio Tommasini continues in his story, 'my uncles opened a bicycle shop and I, overjoyed, after school started with them what for me is the most beautiful job in the world. In 1956 I spent some time in Milan, at Fuchs, where I met Faliero Masi, mechanic for the Nivea Fuchs team (Captain Fiorenzo Magni) and a well-known racing bike builder. Perhaps it was because we were both from Tuscany, but a good relationship was established between us and his suggestions were of great help to me in the future'.

'At the end of the 1960s,' he reveals, 'I finally managed to meet what I knew to be the builder of the frames of almost all the most important racers of the time, Giuseppe Pelà. He lived in Turin but, as he himself was keen to point out, he was born just outside Grosseto and after a while it felt like we had known each other forever, like relatives. Many times I went to his workshop and there I learnt his construction techniques and in 1972 I took over his company'.

iab

In no particular order.

Anna Castelli Ferrieri
Ettore Sottsass
Achille Castiglioni
Cesare Colombo
Marcello Nizzoli

Ravi1990

Pelà s bb shell cut out motif

on a Masi ;-)

joesch

Yes all included in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...rial_designers but I would choose others mentioned above for C&V bike frames

Ravi1990

fomer swiss pro Bernard Vifian
Pelà shell, fork tangs, and guinticiclo head tube lugs (Pelà s too!)
but masi???

VtwinVince

Nobody likes Rossin? I'm keen on the guy who produced the early Grandis Superleggeras. And for other forms of transport I'm going with Giotto Bizzarini and Massimo Tamburini.

79pmooney

If you want to hear some deflating information on noted Italian builders, read what Tom Ritchie found when he was starting out in the '70s. He was cutting up Italian frames to see how things were done by "the best". Some of what he saw was sobering. (And basically proof that lugged and brazed construction is close to fool proof; a point that Raleigh put an exclamation point on in the bike boom. I have a Competition that apparently missed the final lug brazing and was still whole and riding fine 45 years later.)

That said, I still have a soft spot for a red early '70s Masi I spent about a 1000 miles riding with my summer of serious racing.