Antonio's father, Giuseppe Mondonico, opened a framebuilding shop in Milano in 1929. He was soon recognized by the Milan cycling aficionados as a builder with talent. Antonio grew up with bikes and frame building as a way of life. He has spoken of growing up with iron filings under his fingernails. When Giuseppe passed away, there wasn't enough money to keep the Mondonico shop going. Antonio became the master builder for other renowned framemakers of the time. Over the years, he supervised work for Gianna Motta, Cino Cinelli, and Ernesto Colnago. In the mid 1970's he reopened his own shop and again the world could get Mondonico bicycles.

During this time, Antonio also worked as a team mechanic. Mondonico has said that when a builder not only builds the bikes, but goes into the field and assists the racer, he gains insights that are impossible to gain any other way. Faliero Masi (pictured on right with Antonio to Masi's left), another of the great Milan builders, calls it the only laboratory for a builder. In this modern age of multi-million dollar teams, this laboratory is almost impossible to re-create.

Antonio built just a few bikes in the home shop, for a few chosen clients, using only the most time-consuming techniques. In the late 1970's, Paolo Guerciotti needed a master builder to oversee the production of the growing demand of "Guerciotti" bikes. For a decade, Antonio Mondonico and Paolo Guerciotti were partners and produced over 2000 bikes a year, all under the careful, demanding eye of Mondonico. In 1988, Mondonico and Guerciotti parted ways. Mondonico returned to doing what he loved most: creating a few perfect bicycles.

Today, Antonio Mondonico and his son Mauro build fewer than 800 frames a year, all entirely in the small shop attached to their house in Concorezzo, Italy just north of Milan. They build their frames in the manner that built the worldwide Italian reputation - one at a time, entirely by hand.

This page was last edited on 05/31/2006