Zanotti Cycles Refines the Art of Custom Frames
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Zanotti started his frame-building business after noticing a disturbing market trend: "So many people were jumping on the 'unobtanium' material bandwagon," he explains. "Almost every major bicycle company was dropping steel frames from their line-ups and going with titanium, carbon fiber, or some new material. I thought to myself, if I can offer a high-quality steel frame, people will seek me out." In Zanotti's opinion, steel represents the best all-around material for a bicycle frame. "Buyers have many materi-als to choose from when building a bicycle frame. We recognize the redeeming strengths of a few of these materials, and we offer aluminum, scandium, titanium, and carbon fiber when we feel it will be beneficial." But he attributes his company's successes so far to its belief in steel as the ultimate material. "We've built Zanotti Cycles on steel bicycle frames, and we feel it has countless opportunities." Zanotti made his foray into the cycling industry at an early age. Not long after his grandfather taught him to ride, he found himself hooked on bikes; he was racing by the age of eleven. He became an apprentice mechanic shortly thereafter, trading labor for an education in wrenching. As luck would have it, his tutors ranked among the industry's best wrenches, working for Mavic race support and lending their services at the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia for the pro riders' bikes. Zanotti absorbed everything he could from them. But he drew from other sources, too. He continued to ride and race as well as wrench, and in that capacity he was able to learn from some high-profile coaches. Among them was Mike Farrell, coach and manager of the Schwinn pro team and Chicago's Athletes By Design. From Farrell and other coaches and team managers, Zanotti gained valuable perspective on fitting. "After racing for fourteen years and counting," he explains, "I've developed my own school of thought on bicycle performance and rider fit, thanks in no small part to the tutelage I received as a young racer." From wrenching, Zanotti eventually graduated to frame building, learning "the basics and no more" at the United Bicycle Institute. He began to refine his technique over the next couple of years, studying welding, engineering and metallurgy, investing in equipment and learning to work with new materials. He cites his earliest and main inspiration as frame builder Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster Cycles. As a teenager, Zanotti spotted a picture of one of Sadoff's frames in a magazine, and it impressed him indelibly. "It was just a beautiful bike," he recalls. From his years of coaching race teams, both road and mountain, Zanotti has honed his ability to watch a rider's bio-mechanical performance on a bicycle with a trained eye, toward the goal of fitting the rider in a position that optimizes comfort and efficiency. "We understand that mountain biking is a sport that demands the utmost from its riders, and demands everything from their equipment," says Zanotti. "Our meticulously hand-crafted framesets are tuned to handle the terrain, with its many unforeseen variables, while giving you the performance and confidence needed to excel." |
Zanotti Cycles invites ROMP members to take a test ride. Zanotti is confident the bikes will sell themselves. "The best way to get a feel for the quality of our bikes is to take them out on the trails," he notes. To arrange a ride, contact Zanotti Cycles:
info@zanotticycles.com
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