Italmanubri: High Technology Bike Accessories in the Italian Artisan Tradition
By Cyclingnews Staff in Loria, Italy
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Manubrio means handlebars and Ital signifies Italia; thus Italmanubri, the Italian bicycle products firm with over three decades of experience in designing and manufacturing bicycle components. Also known as ITM, the Loria based firm produces world-class components in 4 primary categories: "I Sets"; handlebar & stem product pairings, "Pieghe" or Handlebars, "Attacchi" or Stems, and "Reggiselle", Seatposts.
Flavio Tizian, their managing director told Cyclingnews about ITM's philosophy. "At ITM, we've invested a lot of time and effort to develop the technology to create a sophisticated, high-quality range of bicycle components. Unlike some of our competitors, every product branded Italmanubri is 'Made in Italy'; developed and manufactured in our plant here in Loria."
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"We feel our investment in technological solutions has paid off with some of the best products on the market today." Tizian explained further, "the only exception to this is carbon fiber products, which come from an outside supplier here in Italy, not in Asia which works closely with our engineers to develop state-of-the art carbon fiber products."
The newest products from ITM had their debut at last year's trade shows with Uniko, a three-piece "kit" consisting of carbon fiber handlebar, stem and seat post.
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Unika is the name of the carbon fiber handlebar; a monocoque beauty that weighs only 180 grams (460mm width). With anatomic shape and special front double cable grooves, ITM says that their extensive testing shows the Unika bar to be 20% more rigid than aluminium bars of a similar shape. Unika offers a standard clamp diameter (25.8mm). A key feature is that the bar cross-section is round on top, so rides can change their grip easily.
Uniko is the name of ITM's innovative new monocoque stem and seatpost. The elegantly shaped Uniko stem is available in 5 lengths from 90 to 135mm, with a 87 degree angle to the steeerer, and has a special Grip Wedge System (GWS), which has been patented by ITM. GWS holds the carbon fiber Unika bar securely in place via internal aluminium wedges that secure the bars via opposing bolts. Weighing in at 179 grams for the 135mm length, ITM's Uniko stem pairs perfectly with the Unika bar.
