A brief history of Mondonico ~
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