| In 1901,
Edoardo Bianchi presented the first bicycle ever
featuring a cardan joint transmission.
In 1913 he
invented the front brake system;
In 1914 Bianchi
was a famous and reputed manufacturer: in
just one year, production settled on extraordinary
figures: 45.000 bicycles, 1.500 motorbikes
and 1.000 cars.
Industrial successes, anyway, didn’t
stop him from research and innovations.
In 1915,
Bianchi produced a bike for the Army, equipped
with wide-section tyres, folding frame and
suspensions on both wheels. This original
bicycle was consigned to the Royal Light
Infantry Corp, the “Bersaglieri”,
who used it as an off-road vehicle from the
Alps to the African deserts: it was the first
mountain bike, the ancestor of all the modern
versions.
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