Road Cycling - What's with the card symbols?

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ohsfan

10-13-03, 01:39 PM

Please help me understand this. I've noticed that several bicycle manufacturers use card symbols with their logos i.e., Colnago's club, Litespeed's spade, DeRosa's heart. Where does this come from? Does it have something to do with the analogy of racing to poker? Please enlighten me! :(

lotek

10-13-03, 03:14 PM

Confente - Spade, De Rosa - Hear, Colnago - Club,
Pogliaghi - Diamond, Sachs All suits, Baylis all suits
Alot of British frames also had them (excel, hetchins,
Mercian).
One theory is that Bianchi originated it with the following
"Pokerissmo: no matter how you deal the cards, Bianchi and Coppi are victorious." Vintage Velos Pokerissimo (http://www.vintagevelos.com/Coppibike.html)
According to what I could dig up the Bianchi ad was in 1949 and that was
the earliest mention of playing card suits on a frame.

Marty