You have certainly come across frames and front forks with a panto engraved letter, logo or symbol (also called pantos) and may have wonder from which brand or bicycle mechanic the frame comes. If the full name is engraved on it, then it is of course clear who made the frame or not?
Beautiful engraving of the Faggin brand in the front fork
No it's not, it's not because the name of the bicycle brand is engraved in the frame that it is also made by the brand itself. Many bicycle brands bought their steel frames, mainly from Italy, placed their own pantos in them, then painted them themselves and then placed their own decals on them. Just think of Concorde and Diamant for example, but there are many more.
The Belgian Diamant engraved purchased steel frames
Some even just stuck their own decals on it.
Why pantos?
Placing pantos on the frame and front fork was of course a method of advertising on the one hand and a guarantee on the other that the frame did indeed come from the relevant frame maker, which made them unique.
Panto from the Italian Olmo in the bottom bracket
Carrying out engravings mainly originated in the 1970s when the bicycle economy experienced an incredible boom, before this it was rarely used.
Not all frame makers engraved their frames either. It also wasn't such an easy job, which is why it was usually performed with the better frames, composed of the higher quality tubes.
In addition, they sometimes changed their logo and therefore also their pantos. A bicycle brand can therefore also have different pantos over time, which makes it even more difficult.
Some went very far in fitting pantos: on all lugs, on the top and bottom of the bottom bracket, on the front fork and even on all parts.
engraved chainwheel on an Eddy Merckx bicycle
In the articles below we try to give an overview of the most famous brands with their logos, symbols, letters, etc. to enable you to recognize a frame that has no decals or the wrong decals on it.
This overview is certainly not complete and we ask you to help make this overview as complete as possible. Do you have any examples of pantos that are missing from this list, please send a photo with some explanation to the following email address desaevergunther@yahoo.com.
We have split the overview into 3 parts:
- How to recognize a bicycle brand through the pantos: brands A – H
- How to recognize a bicycle brand through the pantos: brands I - O
- How to recognize a bicycle brand through the pantos: brands P - Z
Clicking on the links above will take you to the relevant page.
