Umberto Dei Super Leggera Vintage Road Bike 1949

It is hard to give a short summary of the life and the influence of Umberto Dei on the bicycle industry. So plentiful are his merits that it would be easy to fill a whole book with them.

So we have to cut it short. Umberto Dei was a successful racer and a bicycle mechanic apprentice at the same time. In the late 1890s he started to build his own bikes. First just for friends soon for other riders.
Umberto's desire was to build the best bikes possible, ever refining his techniques. That way his bikes became rather expensive but also considerably smoother rides than his competitor's. With the years he and his employees acquired an expertise and fame which was second to none. For the 1936 Olympic games, Umberto Dei delivered bicycles to the teams of no less than 9 foreign countries!

After the war, he had to start all over again since his facilities and home had been bombed. But he still had the loyalty of his employees, many of whom had started to work for him when still being a kid, and who had collected an unsurpassed competence.

That way success came back very soon. And more beautiful bikes left the new factory. - Just like our Umberto Dei Super Leggera which stems from approximately 1949.
It still shows many features soon to disappear on the bikes of the 1950s which embraced the new Campagnolo Gran Sport shifting.
The rear braking cable is routed through the tob tube and the mudguards are still there as is the original paint and the pedals. As a shifting serves the early Version of the Simplex Tour de France derailleur. A fantastic bike from the era before the evolution of bikes went forward in the 1950s and 1960s.
A collectible lightweight and beautiful display piece.