Marastoni Artisan Road Bike 1960s

Licinio Marastoni was born in Reggio Emilia in 1922, the third son of a reasonably successful amateur racer. He was originally destined to become a priest but left school at the age of 11 and decided for cycling and how to build bikes.
He was so skilled that by his 17th birthday, he made frames under his own name.
His bikes sometimes had a very distinctive green colour, to which he was inspired, when he found a lizard on the side of the road on his way home. But also other colours are spotted regularly especially on older Marastoni bikes.
After the Licinio had to start over again with a companion. And he started to build bikes which were pretty modern for their time. Came the 70s he made early braze-ons for bottles, cable guides and front derailleurs and maybe the first investment cast lugs in 1970!
Licino did not make too many bikes but every single one was on spot regarding details.
He built frames for several professional riders, including a time trial frame carrying Bianchi decals for Fausto Coppi, and a bunch of frames for Francesco Moser, one of which he rode in his victorious Giro.

Our Marastoni stems from the 1960s and is equipped with some of the nicest parts which were available at that time.
This means basically fine stuff from the Campagnolo line, except for the brakes of course, which are the legendary Universal 61 center pulls, and the innovative Nitor seat post. Campagnolo had no brakes in the market at that time and the Nitor pillar is arguably one of the coolest lightweight pieces of the 1960s.
Small extras like the pump and a bottle cage complete a charming steed in a typical modest Italian silver.

A bike from such a famous artisan builder is always interesting not only due to its heritage aspects, but also because it still rides so well that an Eroica ride or weekend jaunts are not a problem at all. Quite contrary, riding this machine is quite a pleasant experience!