Pippowheels is an artisan workshop on the outskirts of Vicenza, a point of reference in the bicycle world. The centuring of wheels is a speciality, but the company also assembles wheels and hubs, perforating carbon rims (as well as working with titanium and special alloys) to high standards of precision and quality and all completely by hand.
Today in Italy, artisan companies, with fewer than 10 employees, such as Pippowheels are pulling the bicycle economy upwards. The desire to have a ” made-to-measure” quality bicycle in on the increase. The quality of artisan products is also appreciated by famous brands, who often turn to these small producers.
In Italy these small to medium businesses are taking the bicycle market to new heights. Of the 2,062 registered companies (+5.4% in the last 5 years), 2 out of 3 are artisans (66%) this increases to 9 out of 10 in the field of reparation.
As often happens, the company started from a personal passion, that of the founder Filippo Rinaldi who opened his first workshop in 1996, working for la Campagnolo, the company continued to grow until it included his three brothers. In 1999 Pippowheels patented a spoke-hub combination to replace the spokes on a regular wheel. “The idea is perfect, even if I believe that it isn’t fully appreciated by the market yet” says Pippo.
Perhaps in the future the patent might have more success, at the moment it is used by CareerBikes, a Venetian company that produces artisan wooden-framed bicycles, for which Pippo makes the wheels, spending the past three years looking for the best solutions, until the product – which is of the highest quality, obtains excellence. “I particularly enjoyed myself with CareerBikes “says Pippo “because we were able to put forward our best work with great freedom, not only in the assembly of the pieces but also in the construction of specialist custom made wheels.”
Apart from this they also develop quality control tests that are used by companies in Italy and abroad to certificate wheels and components. The quality control tests undertaken by Pippowheels are very rigorous often with parameters superior to those required by law. “If the standard of skidding by wheels accepted by Italian law is 5/10, ours is calibrated at 2/10” says Pippo. The quality of the pieces that leave our laboratory is guaranteed and Pippowheels also offers a maintenance service for stores.
“An unrealised dream? To see an athlete compete and win a race using our wheels!“