Thursday, June 21, 2012

SARTO Cycles

You may have noticed the SARTO Cycles advertisements that began appearing last week in the column on the right. SARTO is the first advertiser in the Italian Cycling Journal since I began more than 5 years ago. There is a reason for that but let me first explain the reason for starting ICJ: a simple desire to share a passion about Italian cycling.

For me, part of the passion is the Italian bicycles themselves.  I want to bring to your attention the small fifteen-person workshop near Venice (Venezia) that is SARTO Cycles. SARTO was founded by Antonio Sarto who traces his framebuilding history back to 1959. Today, the workshop produces 100% handmade frames, made completely in the Veneto.

As fate would have it, sarto is the Italian word for tailor. Not surprisingly, SARTO specializes in building custom frames, like a tailor that creates a one-of-a-kind garment for his client as so beautifully captured in this video:



Like a one-of-a-kind garment, a custom frame can have many elements of customization. At SARTO Cycles, where the tube-to-tube construction method is used, custom geometry needs can be met and tubes can be selected for stiffness, shape and weight, and the amount of joint strengthening can be decided upon all in order to create the desired ride characteristic.

Of course, it is very nice to have a frame built to your exact specifications. For many, that may not be necessary. To meet this need, SARTO has standard models that are handmade to the same high level of quality as are their custom frames. All frames, custom and standard, have a lifetime warranty.

I encourage you to visit www.sartocycles.com (or click on the SARTO image to the right at any time), explore the website carefully, and use their "CONTACT US" button to ask for additional information.

The SARTO workshop:


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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 2,500 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page .   







 

5 comments:

  1. As Larry would say, "perche no?" Welcome to the blog Sarto! Anyone still making frames (even plastic ones) in Italy instead of putting their name on Chinese stuff is a hero to us. The steel bikes they build are gorgeous....

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  2. Beautiful bikes, you can see the craftsmanship in these 'taylor made' bikes.

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  3. Great video! Quite a bit of craftmanship goes into a 'plastic' bike.

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  4. I met a passionate shop owner in Sacramento this weekend and he pretty much sold me on the Sarto frames. Now I just need a lottery ticket!

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