pegoretti
(from competitivecyclist.com)
Why rumor, not fact? After all, Ford makes no bones about the fact that its Formula One race car engines are manufactured by Cosworth. Rumor has it that the name appearing on many a pro bike is not necessarily that of the artisan who built the frame. In a few cases, this is self-evident: the carbon-fiber lugs and tubes of a Colnago C-40 may have been designed by Ernesto himself, but he outsources the tube production and bonding processes to companies primarily involved with aerospace and automotive manufacturing. Equally clear is the fact that any company attempting to cater at the same time to paying customers and a professional road team must employ numerous builders. Yet there is something strange about high-end bike business, a belief amongst many that only cheap frames are made outside of the parent factory.
Naturally enough, the craftsmen supposedly at the origin of the rumors are of the highest caliber. Alberto Masi was legendary for building frames for the stars (Roche, Lemond, Chiappuci to name a few) that bore other builder's names. Masi spilled the beans and was therefore widely associated with the practice. In general, though, the frame-building elite prefer to keep very quiet about these kinds of arrangements for commercial reasons.
Dario Pegoretti has long been a formidable behind-the-scenes presence. He acquired his knowledge and expertise from legendary Gino Milani. Milani was never famous to the cycling world at large, but he was one of the most brilliant framebuilders of the 1970's. His work was a major influence on every high-end framebuilder of the time. Since 1987 Pegoretti has honored the Milani legacy by going beyond the limitations of standard tubing to build unique, world-class frames. Pegoretti is synonymous with innovation. He was the first in Italy to use TIG-welding techniques. For over a decade he's worked side-by-side with Dedacciai to design and develop new tubesets. The DynaLite and Radius tubing so popular with Italian framebuilders throughout the late 90's are direct products of Pegoretti.
From 1991 to 1997, Pegoretti built frames exclusively for pro road teams. Everyone wants to know who, when, where, and how, but unfortunately a lot more folks don't want you to know. But we'll put it like this -- think of any major rider of the 1990's and you can more or less guess that they rode Pegoretti frames decaled otherwise. Name a major bike race, and it's been won on a Pegoretti. Since 1997 Pegoretti has designed and created frames carrying their own name. In 1999 they moved to Levico Terme, a beautiful resort in the Dolomites. It has several times been home to mountaintop finishes in the Giro d'Italia. Since they've moved to Levico, they've redesigned their frames, working on the assumption that an all-round tube profile offers the best compromise between lateral strength and torsional stiffness. It is a deliberate choice made to exploit the benefits of oversized frame tubing. It's not an overstatement to claim that no other Italian framebuilder has been so instrumental in bringing about the wide use of aluminum in road frames, and that none other had more input into the design and fabrication of the tubing itself.
Given that Pegoretti has had a long association with the Italian tubing manufacturer Dedacciai -- in fact, throughout the 90's Dedacciai entrusted Pegoretti with the job of building prototype frames from their new tubesets to provide them with detailed feedback about their buildability -- it took many by surprise going into 2005 that Dario began building his steel frames exclusively out of Columbus Niobium Spirit tubing. Why Columbus for steel? Because as Dedacciai pushes the alchemistic envelope with the most modern alloys out there -- Scandium, Magnesium, and Aluminum -- Columbus (like Pegoretti, and like many of our customers) still believes in the viability of steel as a race-quality frame material. They're just as committed to refining the quality of steel as Dedacciai is to non-ferrous alloys.
In fact, all of the Niobium tubing Pegoretti uses is one-off. He insists that Columbus take the extra step to heat treat the tubes for him. While the stock version of the tubes has very good elongation qualities and thereby provides a nice bit of shock damping, heat treating them gives them a considerable increase in responsiveness under a load. Think of it this way: While a spring is springy by nature, a heat treated spring rebounds from compression far more quickly. In other words, a heat treated Niobium Spirit frameset will provide superior elasticity, making a Pegoretti feel like it's gliding on a lousy road surface to an extent unmatched by other tubesets.
One aside about Pegoretti sizing: Pegoretti frames 58cm and larger have dropped top tubes. 57cm and smaller frames are measured as center to center, but on the larger frames Dario drops the top tubes and extends both the seat and head tubes to compensate. The amount of drop varies with frame size, as do the extensions on the seat and head tubes, but ultimately this allows him to build larger frames both lighter and stiffer without compromising positioning on the bike.