Mountain 2004

Do you know the first company to put a mountain bike into production?

If your answer is any of the big guys with big marketing budgets or any of the more modest “grandfathers of the sport” enshrined in the Mountain Biking Hall of Fame, you’re wrong.

It was Edoardo. Yes, Edoardo Bianchi.

In 1915, Edoardo designed and manufactured a mountain bike for the elite Italian Army Alpine Corps, the Bersagliere. It featured full suspension, moving parts that could all be lubricated with Zerk fittings, and a variety of braze-on options including a machine gun mount.

Oh, and the bike could be folded for easy portaging through the Dolomites.

Today, the Team Motorex bike frames are designed and developed at the Reparto Corse in Treviglio, while all of our other mountain bikes are designed and tested in Northern California at Bianchi USA, in the shadow of mountain biking’s “modern birthplace,” Mt. Tam.