I recently viewed again for the first time in a few years the video from WCP which deals with the lives of Anquetil and Coppi.
In a recent thread about Coppi bikes and why they are not more collectible, I said I didn't think Coppi had any real hand in making the bikes that bore his name. The Coppi video seems to claim otherwise, saying he left Bianchi because he "wanted to make his own bikes", perhaps showing his widow stating that. So maybe he was involved, although it is possible "making his own bikes" meant nothing more than allowing someone to make them with his name, collecting a royalty and riding them in competition. Any any case, according to the film, Coppi staarted using Coppi bikes only in the last year or two of his life, when he was nearing 40 and his major victories were all behind him. And if he did have a real role in production, that association was only for a year or two, as he of course died from malaria contracted on a hunting trip to Africa.
So it would seem that "authentic" Coppi bikes would only have been produced for a year or two before Coppi's untimely death. Don't know if these would have been made by Fiorelli, or some other company. And since Fausto was well and truly beyond his best by that time, no one would have images of the campionissimo winning the Tour or Giro or a major classic on a Coppi bike. So I presume that the vast majority of Coppi bikes have been made since his death, simply licensing the name from his estate. Unless of course some Coppi bikes were made during his prime even though he did not ride them, but stayed with Bianchi until the last year or two. Anyone know for sure? That would not seem very effective marketing, as Anquetil, Bobet and especially Merckx all rode bikes bearing their own names, AFAIK beginning pretty much as soon as these bike were introduced for sale.
So the possible greater involvement of Fausto for a year or two aside, I am still of the opinion that Coppi bikes suffer from not having any real link to any of Fausto's great victories. The same is probably true to a lesser extent of Bartali, Bobet and Anquetil branded bikes. Even though these bikes, unlike Coppis, were ridden by their namesakes to some significant victories, the tifosi associate Bartali with Legnano, Bobet with Stella and Anquetil with Helyett. And it seems to me a Legnano, Stella or Helyett of a year and model that would have been ridden by one of these greats will usually bring a better price than a self-branded bike of a year and model they rode. Only Merckx seems to be the exception, with the Molteni-liveried bikes bringing high prices, even though Merckx had little hand in making them, and in fact it is sometimes difficult to determine just who did make a given Molteni Merckx. And I find it a bit ironic that the quite excellent bikes made by Eddy's own company after his retirement don't bring the prices of a Molteni-Merckx made by any one of half a dozen other companies.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA