The New Milani

"When you are young, you don't see that you have a jewel in your hand; it was only when my father passed away that I discovered this," Celeste Milani explained to Cyclingnews from the Gallarate, Italy headquarters of Milani Bicycles in the spring of 2008. He gave up the security of his role in an international company and took up the trade of his dad and grandfather, building fine racing bicycles.

"I was a manager for a multinational company for many, many years, but I decided to leave that; I decided – along with my wife – to carry on the Milani name. When I was young, I did a little bit of welding, I was better as a commercial guy, not like the pure production guy that my father was. He loved what he did, he loved building bikes, and so he just kept making bikes. He loved his bikes and he was happy that way."

When Natale was building frames it was the days of steel and then aluminium materials, but now that Celeste has re-introduced the Milani name, he has done so with the most current of materials, carbon fibre.

The carbon fibre tubes are in the Veneto region, where Milani has three people working for him, then frames are brought to the Gallarate headquarters for preparation. "We have two guys here in Gallarate to assemble bikes and help with shipping, and then in Veneto we have three people. All-in-all we have ten people. Paola, my wife, in charge of marketing and communication. Last year, I started making carbon frames with the Milani name. We are not just producing carbon frames like you see everywhere, but we are working with an engineering school in Roma to produce something that I think will be shockingly good. Overall, we are low profile guys, but we will show our stuff when we are ready."

Milani Of Old

Many of the top Italian frame builders of today got their start in the post World War II era, but there are a few, like Natale Milani, who started earlier on. "Our family company was started in 1927 in Gallarate, almost 82 years ago. It was started by my father, Natale, and his brothers, Giuseppe and Piero and my father continued the activity, and he changed locations two times. My father closed officially in 1996. So for about nine-year period there were no 'Milani' bikes made, it really took the death of my father in 2006 to bring me back into the industry. I rediscovered the bikes, and wanted to carry own where he left off.

"The past it was all steel, and it was all welded here in Gallarate. Even my grandfather also worked with bikes; the father of my mother, Pietro Bossi," continued Celeste, who showed Cyclingnews some of the very ancient steel-working tools.

Natale Milani kept the company going on a small scale while Europe became a battlefield in the second world war. "The production was reduced but the company still existed. Right after the war the bicycles were built in large quantities again; at one point during the war my dad made the rolling staircases that are used for boarding airplanes." Celeste explained the company's mostly European business dealings, "We have remained small and in Europe since when my dad started the company. There was one point when we sold bikes in Mexico thanks to a friend of my dad, Signor Casola. He was a cyclist of the 1930s from Italy, and he immigrated to Mexico. He was a real pioneer."

Even though the company remained mostly in Europe it made headway with Shimano and Merckx. "My father was the first one in Italy to use Shimano components on his bikes," he continued, showing off one of the frames that his dad welded. "On thing for sure, my father built the frames that was used by Eddy Merckx's team in the 1977 Tour de France – Fiat-France. They were marked as Fiat-France, and it was Merckx who raced with my dad's frame."

The New Milani Bikes

Celeste Milani's care for his bikes was evident the day Cyclingnews went to Gallarate. He was picking over different forks supplied by third party manufacturers and comparing them to the ones that are currently provided by MIC, the same company that supplies the tubing for his frames. "There are two top end road bikes, a city bike, two cyclo-cross bikes [all carbon and aluminium with carbon rear-end that will be arriving soon - ed.] and a track bike. We make the 'cross bikes because we want to sell well in Belgium, Holland and Germany, and those countries have a thriving cyclo-cross environment.

"Ninety percent of our bikes are sold in Europe, outside of Italy. At the movement we don't sell outside of Europe." Milani is working with Italy-based MIC for his exclusive tube designs. "We have a recognised tube shape that we buy from Gabriele Colombo of MIC. We went with him because he is an old friend of the family and his tubes are high quality. We have a dedicated telaista ['frame builder'] in Veneto. All the carbon is glued and wrapped there, and then come here for the final finishes. "We are set-up to produce 500 to 1000 bikes per year from this new facility, even if the target for this year is 300. We stated only last year, so for this reason we cannot project very well. But my father used to produce around 500 to 100 pieces to year – that was the old Milani. We want to be in the high-end of the market, making 300 to 1000 frames a year."

The top-range bike offered by Milani for 2008 is the N107, which means bicycle Number 1, designed in 2007. The N107 and the SL227 use tube-to-tube construction, that is wrapped, glued and baked. Just like other Italian manufacturers, Milani is also working with a famous Italian car manufacturer. In the near future we could see Milani bikes sold along fast four-wheeled vehicles. In order to ensure stiffness and rigidity, Milani is working with Technical Institute Malignani of Udine. "This gives us a certificate and gives the customers faith in our frames." It is testing his tubing and frame designs along with the three-year warranty and the 80-year history that allows customs to feel reassured. The bikes eye-pleasing design and testing should see Milani carry on for many more years to come.

Milani Bicycles website.