The Italian company Selle Italia is one of the best-known manufacturers of saddles for racing bicycles and is known for, among others, the classics Grand Prix, Turbo, Condor, Flite, TriMatic, which are sought after by collectors of vintage racing bicycles.
Acquisition of Sella Italia
The Company was founded in 1987 in Corsico near Milan. In the 1970s, Giuseppe Bigolin took over the company and made Selle Italia an international player.
Riccardo Bigolin, brother of Giuseppe, already owned Selle Royal, another historic Italian manufacturer of saddles, before the takeover. By the way, the word selle is the plural of sella which means as much as saddle, this just in between. It was Riccardo who convinced Giuseppe to take over a company that was in bad shape: Sella Italia. Giuseppe would have the full support of Selle Royal in this.
Giuseppe did not hesitate and, immediately after the takeover, moved the headquarters from Corsico to Rossano Veneto where the company remained until 2008 when the headquarters moved again to Asolo. However, the machines that came with the takeover were outdated and a production of 50 saddles per day was the maximum that Giuseppe could achieve. After all, the company only employed 1 worker and a leather saddle was still almost completely handmade.
The first big succes: Modello Grand Prix
At the end of the 1960s, Cinelli had invented the first saddle with a plastic base: the famous Unicanitor saddle, but only Cinelli had the patent that threatened to fall behind other manufacturers. A few years later in 1973, Sella Italia also launched a plastic saddle: Modello GRAND PRIX, notwithstanding the infringement of Cinelli's patent but strangely enough, Cinelli allowed it to happen.
From then on, Sella Italia was also able to seriously expand its maximum daily production and compete with Cinelli, among others. The boom of Sella Italia comes in the mid-seventies when Giuseppe can sign some contracts with major cycling teams.
Not long after, Sella Italia brings the saddle Criterium on the market that is offered in both in silk and in leather
In 1979 a collaboration is started with Bernard Hinault and the ergonomic saddle Turbo is especially for him designed, another classic among vintage saddles. The name of Bernard Hinault is added to the Turbo and the slogan uses “Turbo the saddle designed by the wind and by Bernard Hinault”.
It is also during this period that the name Selle Italia changes to Selle Italia.
In 1984 SelleItalia experimented with placing gel in the saddles and in 1992 they became the first to use a titanium substructure in their saddles.
Another successful saddle is the Flite, characterized by its sharp shape, aerodynamics and above all light weight: only 200 grams. Champions such as Chiappucci, Cipollini, Pantani and Indurain used the saddle, later also Alberto Contador.
Selle Italia has launched many other models on the market, but we do not count them among the vintage saddles. Also worth mentioning is the saddle dedicated to il pirata Marco Pantani, with the name and corresponding figure of pirate embroidered on the saddle.
Other models with embroidered names or brands were also popular in the 1990s, such as the Selle Italia TriMatic by Eddy Merckx below.
By the way, if you visit the company in Asolo, you can view all the saddles made in the accompanying museum.
More saddles from Selle Italia and then Selle Italia can be found on VeloBase.com at the following link > database saddles Selle Italia
