3T Bikes
Innovation & Excellence in Cycling
By Robert Thorpe, and images by Ben Thorpe
Since its inception in 1961, over 60 years ago, when Mario Dedioniggi founded 3T in Torino, this eclectic brand of artisan cycle makers have produced exceptional bikes for riders all over the world. Now located at Bergamo near Milan, the company continue to innovate and to design and produce cycling components and complete bikes, that define the Italian stamp of engineering excellence, alongside the unrivalled Italian passion for cycling. Yes, Italy is the beating heart of cycling, and it has the history of cycling deeply woven into its national culture. From Moser and his Time Trial low pro machines of the golden era, to Fabian Cancellara in the pro peloton in the early years of the 21st century, 3T have continued to innovate and to evolve, alongside some of the most legendary riders of all time.
One great benefit of being a smaller global brand, is the opportunity to remain free-thinking and passionate. After all, the management structure is smaller and is usually more closely related to ordinary cyclists – which 3T is, supporting many within the Italian cycling community, such as the renowned adventure riders of ‘Rolling Dreamers’ and their gravel bike escapades.
The Passion of Cycling
Here at Pedalnorth, we believe in a similar approach to the cycling community. Our passion is also cycling, and we set out each and every day to remain connected to grassroots cyclists, and to write and produce real and meaningful content without restraint. After all, cycling is a sub-culture and way of life, and never simply a sport. Pedalnorth for us means to pedal north of wherever you may be – and to ride with adventure and smiles along those adventure-laden miles.
A few years ago, we reviewed some 3T finishing kit, when we carried out a bike build build project. We’ve been so I impressed with 3T for so many years, that our recent trip to Euro Bike at Frankfurt had to involve a meeting with this amazing group of talented and passionate people. After all, we try at Pedalnorth to tell you our readers, only about the kit and products that we love ourselves; and, as we feel truly passionate about the excellence of 3T, we wanted to put ourselves in a position to be able to write more about their continual drive for innovation, and their design passion and engineering excellence on 2 wheels – yes, the current range of 3T bikes on show at Euro Bike 2024 isn’t just a display of bikes; it was art on 2-wheels.
A Unique Approach to Carbon Frames
3T is one of those bike brands that, when a friend asks you “what bike do you have,” you simply respond by saying “3T.”
You don’t need to mention the model or anything else. Your cycling friend instinctively knows that you’ve chosen one of the world best bike brands. Made 100% in their state of the art Italian factory, with that artisan attention to detail, 3T have been innovative with their carbon filament weave production techniques, producing a range of modern, sleek and stylish, super light, super strong, performance bikes that have that unique appeal – performance, quality and style in perfect balance.
The Torno crankset was shown to Ben, as we talked bikes with 3T, and the level of finishing was so defined, that you’d happily place the crank on the wall as home, as an art piece. Yes, the Torno harks back to when the great products were created with craftsmanship attention to detail and a desire to innovate. The Torno is the lightest and fastest crank on the market, and it looks magnificent. We can’t wait to see how it performs.
We’re going to be writing more about their carbon production and frame techniques in a future blog, sharing the detailed processes that take place in creating the range of shining performance bikes that graced Euro Bike this year.
Love at First Bike
Most cyclists, whether we admit it or not, fall in love with a bike at first sight. Seeing the latest bikes from 3T in the Euro Bike halls of Frankfurt, was like visiting Disney for cyclists – it was love at first sight. That feeling you had as a child, walking past the windows of a bike shop. The quality is unsurpassed, and the performance speaks for itself, as many of the world’s best riders trust on 3T engineering and design. As for style… well, first of all, it’s Italian, and secondly, it’s 3T, and their latest 3T Race Max Italia road bike simply oozed style when we saw it at Frankfurt.
Talking with the team on the 3T stand, we shared a joint love of cycling, of engineering, and our own images of some vintage 3T bikes and components from our own collection. And, over the next few months we’ll be bringing you lots of detailed cycling content, great images, lifestyle blogs and detailed bike reviews of the latest 3T bike range, as we share the brand’s love and passion for cycling and design innovation with you, the cycling public.
Riding Towards an Exciting Future
Ben, from the Pedalnorth team, will be testing and riding the latest 3T gravel bike on our own U.K. gravel bike coast to coast route; and Nadezhda will be riding, racing and exploring the roads of Europe and beyond on the latest 3T road bike. As for now, we need to pause and take a breathe after a hectic time at Euro Bike 2024, where 3T shone and continued to show the global cycling community what the best gravel bikes in the world look and feel like.
Yes, Euro Bike 2024 showed that this passionate group of Italian artisans continue to follow their long heritage, by designing and creating some of the very best, high-quality, high performance and super-stylish road and gravel bikes in the world; and we’re going to be writing lots more about this amazing brand over the next few months and beyond.
Rudy Project
