To Rimini today, via Verona and Nalini.
Things are working fairly well. B-Money likes to drive, I can navigate and sleep. A perfect marriage.
We stopped quickly in Verona for lunch and thanks to Lonely Planet we managed to find a traditonal Veronese restaurant that was so traditional they had a "Menu Tourista". Not to worry, a quick feed and we were off to Nalini to look at how cycling clothes are made, before arriving at the Baldoni Bike shop in Forli at 5pm on the knocker to have B-Money's bike restored to it's former glory.
After lunch I was keen to get rolling, however B-Money wanted to do a quick walk into the main part of town. He lived up to his name by taking us directly to one of the main attractions which is the fake Juliet balcony. I am not sure why so many people get excited over this, however proceeded to live the moment and take a couple of happy snaps myself.
Back on the road and after some slight adjustments to the b/&% we were at Nalini. They appeared very pleased to see us and actually spent a fair bit of time showing us around the factory. We even met the owner, whose name escapes me, however was once the goalkeeper for AC Milan. He did not look like he was that big, however maybe goalkeepers were not back then.
The one thing that struck me as interesting was the large amount of handling and manual processes at this place, while machinery and equipment was state of the art. They are very proud of the fact that everything is made in Italy, however the price is higher as a result. I am sure they could automate a lot of what they do. They also white label a lot of garments for other companies like Addidas and Craft. The latter do the Saxo Bank kits and I had a blow up kangaroo signed by Andy Schleck, Jens Voight and Stuart O'Grady, however still did not hand it over.
Also interesting was the processes they used. Sublemation was the main one for large quantity orders. This is where paper is printed with the design, which is then pressed on to the fabric. Like an iron on transfer. Ditto to the digital process which is for smaller run orders. Then there is overprinting where the design is printed on the fabric, however this is used for simpler designs.
It is amazing to consider the lead times for the kits that we have purchased and then understand exactly how quickly they can turn something around if they have to (eg: for a tour de france yellow jersey wearer, or a newly crowned national champion).
On to Baldoni and we arrived fashionably late Italian style at 630pm! They proceeded to fix B-Money's bike straight away and even gave my drive train a free lube. I succumbed to my guilt and purchased a five euro bottle of lube! The bikes in this shop are amazingly cheap and you could pick up a top of the line model Pinarello Dogma for a touch over half the price you would get it for in Australia. That is still eight to ten thousand dollars, however it is a significant saving.
We arrived at Rimini for some great hospitality from Federica (Dott) before heading to one of the many bars on the beach. Super stuff.
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