Wilier Triestina USA is a partnership between Wilier Triestina and their importer since 1999, Velo Imports. Angelo Cilli founded Velo Imports for the sole purpose of importing Wilier bicycles. At that time, Wilier was the last major Italian bicycle manufacturer to lack a USA importer/distributor.
Wilier was founded in 1906, and is one of the oldest bicycle brands in the world. Their headquarters is in Rossano Veneto, Italy, which is about 90 km northwest of Venice. Angelo steadily grew the business, and then his son Gianmarco joined him in 2001. Together they have established a network of loyal Elite Dealers in the United States, whom they enjoy taking to Rossano Veneto every May to visit the factory and to ride the Dolomite stages of the Giro d’Italia. The latter could be seen more as a punishment than a reward, but everyone seems to love it.
So many bikes emphasize plushness that it’s good to see companies like Wilier Triestina push the limits of how aero an everyday road bike can get. The Italian company brought in aerodynamics expert John Cobb, who previously designed Wilier’s Cento Crono, Cento 1 Crono and Tri-Crono, and set him loose on every part of the frame. A lot of Cobb’s influences are visually obvious and expected such as the leading edge on the down tube (Cobb calls it a “splitter”) that, Cobb claims, cleans up the air coming from the rotating front wheel. The head tube, of course, is shaped to lift air away from the wheel and direct it backward. And the seat tube/stay cluster is made to better guide air around the tube.
Some of Cobb’s other ideas are more subtle. He says airflow is also controlled with multiple curves on the down tube, the slope and taper of the top tube, what Cobb calls “trailing stabilizers” on the rear of the chainstays and seatstays, a small cutout in the back of the seat tube that is supposed to release air trapped by the spinning wheel, the way the chainstays are connected to the underside of the bottom bracket shell, and even details down to the level of cable orientation. (Cobb says the bottom bracket is designed in such a way that if the cables are crossed just before passing under it, aerodynamics will be improved ever so slightly. Full disclosure: We botched this detail on our build.)
Wilier wants this to be a road bike rather than a single-purpose time-trial machine, so in places the frame is shaped in an effort to achieve the ideal: stiff under pedaling, compliant over rough roads. The Imperiale isn’t as harsh as its appearance would lead you to believe, but it lacks the refined ride of Wilier’s high-end, all-around road and race bikes. All four of our testers loved the power transfer and rock-solid feel of Wilier’s bottom-bracket design (the outboard bearings end up inside the shell). This is a bike that feels stout at the same time that it feels sleek. You’ll never call it luxe, though. When you get on, you need to be thinking about speed.
