Di Luca's bikes

Le Commentateur

While we're waiting for the girls to finish their tennis match and Giro coverage to start....


I wonder why Di Luca prefers an English set-up for his brake cables? He has it like that also on his TT bike. Has he got a weak left hand or something, or is it a team-leader's quirk to be non-standard?



Even Cavendish is riding a bike wired continental style:

Kléber

The British and Italian styles are the same. It's reversed in France and Belgium. Not sure about Spain.

Le Commentateur

Are you certain?.... if the tennis had gone on any longer I would have been pedantically trawling through Sirotti's pictures for comparisons. Garzelli's De Rosa bike is certainly wired lefthand-front rather than like DI Luca's.

British bikes were opposite due to the need to simultaneously make a hand signal and reduce speed for on-coming traffic when making a righthand turn.

It is possible that very old Italian bikes would be wired the same way, as between the 1900s and 1920s Italy switched over from driving on the left to driving on the right (all the tram lines in Milan had to be re-engineered as a result) and the northern industrial towns, where bikes would have been manufactured and used by factory workers, were the last to make the switch.

So perhaps it is a subtle patriotic/traditionalist gesture by Di Luca?

alan_sherman

Maybe he rides a motorbike. I wouldn't want to switch to the different confis betweem motorisd and non-motorised.

ACMadone

Just noticed as he signed in for todays stage, that Di Luca is left handed. Could that be why he's got them set up English?

mercsport

Although I've ridden a lot in Italy I confess that I never really noticed what the custom was for brake wiring . I seemed to recall the wonderful Cippollini riding the 'right way' and hooking his right lever up with the front stopper . I'm not too sure if this pic' confirms that or not - I think it does - but it amused me to think that he enjoyed a drag on a fag occasionally .

Le Commentateur

I'd forgotten that he was the Pirate's predecessor at that team.