Well, things are certainly back up-to-speed here at the magazine after the holidays. I hope you had a good one. You'll be glad to know that even though we're all a little teary-eyed over Jeremy "Showtime" McGrath's sudden retirement, we're still focused on getting another issue out the door. It's NORBA's 20th anniversary and in the spirit of celebrating, we're working on a pretty interesting feature piece highlighting the highs (and some lows) of the governing body of mountain biking.Personally, I'm working on a few techy pieces that highlight just how far technology has come in the past 20 years. This had me racing across the snow-covered high plains of Colorado on my way to Steamboat Springs to track down Steve Tilford's 1983 Raleigh (the first mountain bike to win a national championship) and also scrutineering current national champion Jeremy "Bling Bling" Horgan-Kobelski's Litespeed Tanasi.It's pretty cool to see how far racing technology has come (and in some cases, not so far) in 20 years. Take a peek in the upcoming issue #2 of VeloNews for a full report.Meanwhile, here are a few more Italy reports. Enjoy, and drop me a line if you've got any questions, complaints or even compliments.Thanks,
Andrew J.
Ajuskaitis@7dogs.com

Pinarello
Number of Employees: 35
What they produced in 2002: 12,500 bikes/frames
What's New: The new Prince SL is lighter and more responsivethan last year's Prince thanks to modified chainstays.I Did Not Know That:
1. Pinarello exports about 1000 bicycles each year to Japan where, according to Fausto Pinarello himself, "most are put on a pedestal and never ridden."
2. When we visited, there were still only four Dogmas in the world. Production was just ramping-up to meet the overwhelming demand for one of the world's first magnesium-tubed bicycles.

ITM laser-etches warnings, instructions and recommended tightening torques on all of its products

ITM (a.k.a. Italmanubri)
Number of Employees: 85
What they produced in 2002: 3.5 million
What's New: The tag-team of the Unika bar and Uniko stem are 100 percent Italian handmade. The Uniko stem utilizes 100 carbon construction—only the clamping mechanism and hardware is alloy.I Did Not Know That:
1. ITM's magnesium "The Stem" is claimed to be the lightest stem in the world at 95 grams.
2. In addition to producing bicycle parts, ITM also is in the chrome plating business--dipping everything from chairs to trinkets into its massive electro-chrome plating tanks that stretched on for half a city block.
3. ITM also produces steel tubing which we saw rolled out from massive 2 story spools, formed, seam welded and finished filed at an astonishing rate.
4. ITM now includes a "Handy Guide" with each of its components which very clearly spells out the precise torque specs—increasingly critical information for increasingly delicate componentry (magnesium, aluminum and carbon).

Selcof
Number of Employees: 8
What they produced in 2002:1 million seatposts per year
What's New: On the design table, we saw a new carbon and magnesiumseatpost in the works. Look for it in 2004.I Did Not Know That:
1. Selcof is one of the leading producers of seatposts in Europe--notjust Italy.
2. Its ART.92 carbon post comes in both natural and a very coolwhite-ish color--look for more colors in 2004.
3. Selcof produces a different post in aluminum, steel, carbon and titanium (and suspension).

Pegoretti
Number of Employees: 3
What they produced in 2002: 400 frames (under the Pegorettiname--would not disclose how frames were produced for other manufacturers--aPegoretti tradition)
What's New: Lugged frames are in high demand--although Darioinitially planned on building only 30 of his Luigino framesets, demandhas forced him to produced twice that amount--finding the necessary lugshas been a difficult searchI Did Not Know That:
1. Only 20 percent of Dario Pegoretti's production is aluminum.The rest is steel.
2. A custom frame will take about 10 weeks from order to delivery.
3. The artwork found on each bicycle is generated by Dario himself,a big fan of avant-garde artwork himself.
4. The artwork is hand painted on each frame, not transferred.
5. Pegoretti's best seller is the Great Googoolee Moogoolee.