| The VeloBase.com History of 3TTT |
Mario Dedioniggi worked for 10 years at the Ambrosio factory (the same one that’s still manufacturing remarkable rims today) before starting the company “Tecnologia del Tubo Torinese”. In the 1950’s, making bicycle handlebars was not such a big deal: there were no special shapes, no morphological bending radius. Just a bending machine, a mould, a tube filled with sand and the power of the worker’s arms. In 1961 Mario Dedioniggi hired a worker, bought a big three room warehouse in Turin and a bending machine: this is how the “Tecnologia del Tubo Torinese” (Turin Tube Technology) factory was born (and immediately abbreviated to an easier TTT or 3TTT). In a time when everything related to bicycles was made out of steel, Dedioniggi knew the future was aluminium. So, he started producing bike components with the top existing technologies, experimenting on new alloys and handlebar shapes.
Doug Charles: "here is what I have been able to glean on the Ambroiso/3TTT relationship, all from third party sources. Ambrosio founded in the early 1900's in Turin initially making steel bars and stems, until the 1930's it was a large concern in the bike biz, but slowly started to fade. At some point, alloy bars, stems and rims are added to the mix. In the early 1960's, Piero Marzorati from Milan family buys Ambrosio to add it to their existing company which makes among other things, steel rims. Initially, bars and stems were made until the sons, Sergio and Maurizio take over in the late 1960's and push more emphasis on the rim side of the business. In the 1970's, rims are the biggest part of what they do. In 1961 (when Marzorati shows up?), long term employee, Mario Dedioniggi leaves Ambrosio and founds 'Turin Tube Technology', which is soon to become 'Techo Tubo Torino'. He also starts with steel bars and stems ... He soon converts to aluminum with Ergal coming in 1975 for the Superleggero bar. In 1985, Dedioniggi leaves and sell the brand to Antonio Colombo et al. Colombo founds a new company, so as not to compete directly with Cinelli with the plans to call it '3TTT S.p.A." but the clerk forgets the other two 'T's' and it becomes '3T' ...So, they appear to be parallel companies of the same parent in the 1960's-70's with ties, but not the same company and to this day, have different addresses." |
