The Quest For Light Weight
3T is an Italian cycle sport firm, located in Madone, near Milano. It was originally known as 3TTT â Tecnologia del Tubo Torinese (Turin Tube Technology). Many competitions have been won on 3T components, including the Tour de France, Olympic races, World Championships, and the World Hour Record.
The firm was founded by Mario Dedioniggi in Torino in 1961. Dedioniggi was skilled at manipulating and bending steel tubes to fabricate the lightweight handlebars desired by racing cyclists, and Italian professional riders were among 3Tâs first customers.
By 1970 3T handlebars and stems were in widespread use in the European professional peloton. In the quest for lighter weight, 3T switched production to aluminum alloy in place of steel. It was among the first to use aluminum for these components, where strength is critical to safety.
In 1975 it produced the Superleggera weighing 250 grammes â claimed to be the world's lightest drop handlebar. This bar was the first to be made of 7075 aluminium alloy, a material usually used in aerospace applications. The high strength-to-weight ratio of this alloy, also known as Ergal, found uses in other sports: 3T ski poles sold well for several seasons during the 1970s.
Read more about this topic: 3T Cycling
Famous quotes containing the words quest, light and/or weight:
“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing.”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)
“The hurt is not enough:
I long for weight and strength
To feel the earth as rough
To all my length.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)