Born in Milan in 1971, Fabio Gramegna lives in a small town in the hinterland of Milan.
Passionate about mechanics and motorbikes bodywork, since he was a teenager he has been cultivating a passion for vintage motorcycles when, in the cellar, he discovered his grandfather's old bike used as the only means of transport to go to work and move in the post-war years: the Guzzino 65cc of Moto Guzzi. Hence the beginning of the passion for restoration, first only painting, without even disassembling components, with a hue not even close to the original one then, maturing, the turning point: the desire and passion to bring back to originality the Guzzino 65, of his grandfather.
From this experience Fabio was also caught by a passion for collecting vintage motorcycles. Fascinated by the mechanics of their engines, the robustness of their frames and other technical aspects, in the following ten years Fabio buys and restores ten vintage motorcycles, almost all from the Moto Guzzi brand. The Airone Sport and Tourism, two other Guzzino 65, a Guzzi Cardellino, two Guzzi Galletto (one 160cc and the other 190cc), a Moto Guzzi Stornello Sport America, and the vehicle with which his dad, as a young man, used to carry around his mother on Sundays, a Vespa GL 150cc.
Since he was 18 years old, Fabio has been working in the family business, operating in the electromechanical sector. At the age of 25 he became CEO and managed the business for about thirty years, accumulating experience both in the use of machine tools and in the managerial part. After almost thirty years, however, Fabio is no longer happy with what he does. At the end of the 2010s, due to economic changes, the evolving market and increasingly restrictive laws, the management of the company became increasingly burdensome and, despite efforts to look for innovative solutions for development and growth, daily worries and everyday problems became increasingly dominant compared to periods of serenity. Fabio no longer sees a future and, above all, no longer tolerates an obligation that made his life different from the one he wanted to live.
In 2015 he sells the company and understands that he needs to redefine his skills. If he had been able to create something in which to distill all the experience and professionalism acquired over the years, the product would have been himself.
He misses his bikes, relegated to the cellar, although covered and well preserved, and free from the conditioning of the previous work, he understands that his professional rebirth would be born from there. Times were changing, however, and space for motorized vintage vehicles was affected by environmental priorities.
What to do? The final idea came during the demolition of a farmhouse near Fabio's house. The masons, knowing Fabio's passion for two-wheeled vintage vehicles, called him to warn him that they had found two Aquilotto by Bianchi (1950s bicycle with combustion engine and roller traction on the rear wheel with shifting lever). They were in very bad condition, but complete with almost all the pieces. Without thinking too much about it Fabio takes them home, convinced that restoring and building bicycles would have been much easier than restoring motorcycles.
He restored those two Bianchi Aquilotto and decided that the next move would be to create Gramegna-branded bicycles. It took six months just to draw up a list of suppliers from which he could source for all those parts that would make his bicycles unique.
Some rules were also defined. Gramegna bicycles would have all:
- the tank as an aesthetic and distinctive element;
- the manual shifting lever such as that of the Guzzino;
- colors similar to those of Moto Guzzi between the 1900s and 1950s;
- aesthetic and light wooden parts such as fenders, dumbbells, pedals and front light;
- the three-speed gearbox inside the drum, protected from dust and mud, to have a clean line.
Finally free to turn a passion into a profession, Gramegna presents himself on the market in 2021 with four bicycle models, all muscular. In 2021 the company Gramegna Classic Design is also founded, for selling these 100% made in Italy handcrafted bicycles.