Fred Rafael Rednor wrote:
>
> (snip) Anyway, the name "Montlhery" became
> a sort of by-word for speedy racing, sort of like Ballila in
> Italy.
Not an Italian race track but part of the Italian fascist pre WWII. Here's the research Aldo did on Balilla: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subject: why the name "Balilla" [classicrendezvous] Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 14:01:31 -0400 From: "swampmtn" <swampmtn@siscom.net> To: "classic rendezvous" <classicrendezvous@listbot.com>
Our recent discussion of Balilla and Universal brakes lead me to do a bit of research on the history of the word "balilla". Here's what I found.
Balilla is an Italian folk hero, a famous 18th century Genovese "nationalist". In mid 1746 the Austians were in occupation of Genoa. A young boy named Balilla is said to have thrown a pebble at a Austrian official, thus beginning a revolt which saw the Austrian occupying forces withdraw from Genoa, and the eventual victory by the Genoese people. There's even a statue of Balilla, throwing the pebble, in Genoa.
Thus you get Balilla bicycle brakes, FIAT "Balilla" automobiles, the Italian fascist "Balilla" organization (which trained children to become "good" little fascists), etc. The surprising thing is that Balilla continued to use the name after the war.
Balilla's "tipo Corsa 61" is their centerpull brakeset, introduced in 1961. They also made sidepulls brakes in aluminum (nice) and steel (awful).
I have some lovely pics of the tipo 61 brakeset, if anyone is interested.
Aldo Ross "love the bike parts, not the politics" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.