A bit of Cherry-Ahni history... by David Dunfey
Arturo Ceriani (pronounced ‘cherry ahni’) was said to be an employee of MV Augusta who was asked to leave in 1951 so that he could supply MV with suspension parts and magnesium wheel hubs.
In 1964 Arturo’s son Enrico took charge of the company and built a new plant in Samarate, Italy.
While the company was known to the end users as ‘Ceriani,’ within the suspension industry the company was known as ‘ARCES.’
This name came from ARturo CEriani of Samarate. This is why the early original Ceriani triple trees have the word ‘ARCES’ cast in on the underside of the lower triple.
By 1972 Ceriani had sold 100,000 suspension units, but the demand outstripped their production capacity allowing competitors to poach their market and by 1980 the Ceriani plant closed.
In 1981 Enrico sold the remaining assets to Forcelle Italia which produced the 38, 40 and 42mm Ceriani fork under license.
Forcelle Italia went out of business around 1995. The name stayed for sale until 1997 when it was purchased by Paioli. Meanwhile, Enrico in 1987 formed a partnership called G.C.B. Special Forks (Gazzaniga, Ceriani and Bianchi) which lasted for a decade. During this time you could buy a 35mm road racing fork made by G.C.B.
In 1989 Enrico, with Steve Storz in the U.S. revived the Ceriani name. Paioli probably did not have the name under trademark in the U.S. because the U.S. trademark law is based on ‘use’ as opposed to ‘registration.’ Steve, who was a mechanic and tuner for Kenny Roberts, Don Castro and the Harley Davidson XR750 flat track racing team became familiar with the forks when the 42mm flat track fork was introduced in 1984. The first U.S. made Storz/Ceriani fork was introduced in 1998.
Compared to Ceriani, the Campagnolo history is straight forward. Tullio Campagnolo founded the company in 1933 and was responsible for the advancement of many bicycle components. In the 1950’s they began producing magnesium wheels for Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati. It is said that Campagnolo produced the first disc brake setup for a two wheeled vehicle, the 1963 Lambretta motor scooter manufactured by Innocenti.
Original article here:
http://www.voc.uk.com/net/docs/1.6/1.6-764-22.pdfAttachment:
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