52cm Mirella Frame

On this page: 52cm Mirella frameset

Mirella frames are built in the Leri shop, founded in 1898. The Leri company is in Muggiò, just north of Milan and west of Monza. It's here in Lombardy that the tradition of careful hand-crafted frames was strongest. Perhaps the names of some of Lombardy's other great builders will be familiar to the reader: Masi, Mondonico, Pogliaghi & Colnago.

The Rinaldi family, which founded the company and still owns it, created the Leri and Mirella names in 1923. An oft-repeated story is that "Mirella" was the owner's daughter's name. This is not true. Signor Rinaldi simply liked the Mirella name and decided to use it as a frame name.

It was Leopold, the son of founder Giovanni Rinaldi, who began producing the two brands and more than that, in 1923 he moved the factory from Bagnolo in the Piedmont region to Cinisello Balsamo, a town about ten kilometers northwest of the Milan city center.

In 1958, another generation of the family moved the factory to its current location in Muggio, another town northwest of Milan.

The firm joined in the American bike boom, exporting its first bikes to the U.S. in 1970, eventually expanding its export line to BMX and mountain bikes.

The company is now in the hands of yet another generation descended from founder Leopold, Paola and Roberta, who joined the firm in 1998.

The Classic Rendezvous site posted this interesting page of Mirella frameset photos.

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52cm Mirella frame and fork with Campagnolo headset $400.00 (used)
52cm seat tube x 54cm top tube.

• 110mm head tube

The Leri shop used both Falck and Columbus tubing. Because this frameset has been re-painted, its tubing decal is long gone. But it is not a great leap of faith to assume that a frame exhibiting this high level of workmanship from the 1970s is made of Columbus tubing.

We date this frameset to the early 1970s. Note the long Campagnolo dropouts with eyelets and chrome-plated cast flat fork crown. This is a classic Italian road frameset that will eat up the miles, yet jump when you get out of the saddle.

The frameset comes with this Campagnolo Gran Sport headset. The workmanship is very good. Note the brass around the fork tips has been shaped and smoothed.

The frameset has been re-sprayed, but not by just anybody. Note the decal on the left chainstay. This is a CyclArt paint job. CyclArt is one of the most highly regarded frame-finishing shops on the planet. You can see the classic Campagnolo cable guides and the nicely lugged chainstay bridge.

View of the rear triangle. There are scratches. But again, the rear dropouts are beautifully brazed and finished into the stays. And is there anything lovelier than chrome-plated, cut-out Prugnat lugs?