The end of an age

The decline of Wilier Triestina came quickly and relentlessly when the echo of its maximum glory in sport and business was still resounding.
When business starts going downhill it is usually due to several concomitant factors, but the episode mainly linked with the collapse of the company was an unexpected event that Dal Molin was not able to react to: the non-payment of a significant number of bicycles.
Numerous cases had been crammed on a merchant vessel heading for Argentina, like the one featured on the panels that Wilier showed off in fairs and in the company. However, all those bicycles were never paid for and Wilier Triestina, already staggering, ended up on its knees. In 1952 the Dal Molin family sold their ownership to MMM (Meccanica Moderna Milano), which decided to dedicate some departments of the factory in Bassano to assembling Parilla sports motorbikes. A bicycle production line was maintained at the same time. In that period mostly motorbikes and scooters left Wilier, some of which under the Wilier Triestina brand. It was just another futile attempt in the unstoppable decline of the company. An entrepreneurial era lasting almost half a century, which at times had been so exciting to become an asset and symbol of Italy, was coming to an end in the history of Ciclomeccanica Dal Molin, later becoming Wilier Triestina. A chapter was closed for good but it would not be the last.


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8th October 2013