The Unico series by Wilier Triestina and the 100 years of Shimano di Shimano
Unico is where art and technology come together. However, at times, a bike is already a work of art and its creator an artist. In 1921, Shozaburo Shimano did not realise he was one of them. It was the passing of time that consecrated him among those who best combined pure bicycle technology with a far-reaching aesthetic concept. But, then again, Japan is the ideal place not only to pursue technical perfection but a natural project of aesthetic beauty as well.
Moreover, southern Japan also possessed other fundamental qualities. Sakai, where Shimano Iron Works was founded, is less than ten miles from the centre of commercial relations established in 1868 between the West and Japan: the port of Osaka. The bicycle was one of the novelties from Europe that landed on the Japanese docks of Osaka Bay at the start of the 20th century.
In 1973, Dura-Ace crossed the seas in the opposite direction and entered the world of European professional cycling, imposing Shimano as the most important partner for transmission components. Dura–Ace is the symbol of the Shimano family: from Shozaburo to his son Shozo, from Keizo to Yoshizo and down to Shozo, and is proof of how unique can be when it comes to creation, one of the words behind which hides what we call art.To celebrate in the best possible way the one hundred years of Shimano Iron Works, Wilier Triestina has created a special Unico frame, entrusting it to the craftsmanship of an artist who fully represents Japan's centuries-old traditions but who is knowingly projected into the future. For this important anniversary, the new addition to the Wilier Triestina Unico series is by Jun Inoue.
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