Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Fossati Titanium Chain


Here is a Fossati branded (on the side plates) titanium chain found with a NOS (New Old Stock) 1977 Super Record gruppo. At 226 grams this chain weighs less than current Super Record 11 speed chains that weigh in at 242 grams.

The Vittorio Fossati company is the company that manufactured the EVEREST brand of chains. While EVEREST chains are well known, Fossati branded chains are a rarity. The Vittorio Fossati company was founded by Vittorio Fossati at the end of World War I, concentrating its activities in the industrial sector of small and medium chains.

Photo: courtesy of Bob Freeman, Elliott Bay Bicycles, Seattle, WA

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,000 stories in this blog; the search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic. Sometimes we forget that the tech has already been done before...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Back in the early 90's I bought a Regina Superleggera SL Extra chain for my bike- 240 grams. Not sure what I thought I was doing, as I was riding a nondescript Nishiki bike with Suntour components. Instead of pins it had hollow rivets, very thin steel. Predictably it broke one day, though I was only a few km from returning home. An Italian guy stopped and tried to give me a tow by holding on to his arm, but I was too uncoordinated and after a short wobbly stretch, I had to start walking in my cleats, up the hill, through the galleria, up another steep hill, etc. The chain went in the trash.

    Imagine my horror a decade later when my 10 speed Campy chain arrived with hollow pins! This one seems much stronger, better engineered though, and still only 255 grams.

    ReplyDelete