The autoclave, great for cooking carbon, but no room for Pizza
The origins of Milani Cycles date way back to 1927 when two brothers began making bikes for themselves. Giuseppe, Piero and Natale Milani, the three brothers in question, were both top quality racers in their own right. At the time Milani Cycles was formed Giuseppe was racing in the Bianchi team with the likes of Michele Mara, Domenico Piemontesi, Alfonso Crippa, Ambrogio Morelli. Natale was with the Viscontea team along with another very well known name in cycling Cino Cinelli & who later went on the found his own bicycle company.
One of the three brothers, Natale was already quite a craftsman and engineer. During the second world war he served with the Italian Air force as a flight engineer, regularly manufacturing parts when spares were not available, or making things purely to try and improve upon already existing designs. It is this core craftsman ability to make things with his hands along with a deep understanding of engineering that led to Milani Cycles being one of the first to make a bicycle frame using aluminium alloy, and undoubtedly the reason that Milani Cycles products quickly became known as the best that money could buy.
Craftsmanship is the key, even down to the paint finish
The first workshop, based in Gallarate, was in an excellent position geographically. It was surrounded by a hotbed of industrial giants of engineering such as M.V. Agusta Aviation (later to become M.V Agusta motorcycles and AugustaWestland helicopters), Caproni Aviation, Macchi Aviation, Frera motorcycles and Ganna cycles to name but a few. With such a concentration of expertise and craftsmanship, it is no real surprise that Milani Cycles quickly became one of the best makers of bicycles in Italy. A lesser known fact though is that Milani did not only construct bikes for themselves. They produced some of the best bikes in the world for some of the biggest names in cycling. Their expertise, craftsmanship and attention to exquisite detail quite rightly made Natale Milani and his bicycles one of the most widely respected representatives of the school of Italian frame builders & and that is something that can equally be applied to the Milani products of today.
Maserati cars take time out from winning to create the Maserati bicycle
That was very nearly not to be though. With the death of Natale Milani in 2005 the brand was to lay dormant until Celeste Milani and his wife Paola Di Domenico resurrected the name and relaunched Milani into the cycling world once more. Today Milani apply the same core values that Natale worked to instill into Milani to their current range of bikes. Quality, performance, and also the ability to have any Milani frame with custom built geometry. Their current range of bikes runs from a pure race bred full carbon composite offering all the way through to a replica steel frame, and also a new TIG welded (no lugs) steel frame with rack and mudguard mounts. The attention to detail and the craftsmanship is equal on each frame they produce, there is simply no such thing as a "cheap" Milani.
In this installment of Industry Insider we take a look at how Milani make their current carbon fiber composite frames, how they achieve their superb quality paint finishes, Celeste Milani explains the history and passion behind the brand, and we go to the Maserati Cars headquarters to find out why they chose Milani to manufacture their exclusive Maserati Bicycles
