Bonzo Banana

I think statistically Italians don't spend a lot on bikes themselves so I guess it's an industry export driven. I've always thought of italian bikes as weak bikes. I seem to remember Campagnolo components having low weight limits and when an italian very lightweight steel frame was tested for strength it was very weak, the weakest frame on test. Also many modern Italian bikes are coming out of the same Asian factories as many other brands but their prices seem excessively high compared to many other brands importing the same frames. I wouldn't consider a new Italian bike today as they are a long way from reasonable value.

I couldn't help noticing while watching a youtube channel called 'two wheel cruise' that visited some Japanese cycle shops how Italian brand bikes are quite common as their high end choices. I guess they make more sense to the Japanese who like the heritage of Italian brands and will have no issues with their low weight limits.

I've ridden a few italian bikes in my time but never noticed anything particularly good or bad about them but I'm not a competitive cyclist who perhaps would notice those subtle differences and they weren't high end models. I remember when Raleigh stopped making their Raleigh Twenty model and started using a U folder design which was cheaper to make and copied the italian design and then later I think they imported italian frames they were complete rubbish compared to the Raleigh Twenty in ride quality, strength etc with only lower manufacturing costs really being the benefit.