Technician with bicycle repair workshop in Umbria, Italy

Bicycle repair for passion

My name is Mirco Cetra, I live in Torgiano, in the province of Perugia (Umbria), and I am a cyclist. I have a diploma in mechanics, which has always been one of my passions, along with mechanical engineering and DIY. I also like to keep up to date with developments in science and research on composite materials. In my spare time, as a technician specialising in carbon bike repairs, I work as a turner in a railway workshop. I got into cycling in the late 1990s and it was love at first sight; a sport that gives you freedom and is physically demanding is the best for me. However, simply practising the sport was not enough for me. I read, or rather devoured, everything I could find on the subject of bicycles and, within a year, I built my first carbon road frame, with SCAPIN geometry, made from polystyrene tubes covered with polymerised carbon skins in a vacuum bag. Incredible but true, it worked, and better than the original I owned at the time, and it never broke.

From then on, it has been a continuous evolution. Currently, I personally build the frames and components (crankset, steering, pedals) of the bikes I compete with in local MTB circuits, achieving good results. In recent years, I have also built custom frames for friends who have asked me to, and they are still competing without any problems. My bikes continue to hold up, despite the numerous falls that are inevitable for those who race and train on MTBs. It was a very short step from building carbon frames from scratch to repairing damaged ones: it was 2001 when a friend who owned a shop asked me to repair the seat tube of a damaged Colnago C 40 bike. With my many years of experience in repairing windsurf boards, I accepted this new challenge, albeit with a certain amount of scepticism. I doubted the long-term durability of the repair, but this first attempt was an immediate success, far exceeding my expectations.

PIn short, I have been repairing carbon frames and components since 2001 and, as far as I know, none of the repairs have failed subsequently. (I would like to dispel a myth here: carbon and, more generally, composite structures are absolutely repairable. As far as bicycles are concerned, in most cases, such repairs do not significantly alter the weight of the frame or compromise the rigidity of the bike's structure: it is almost impossible to notice any difference in performance in a repaired vehicle.) It all started as a hobby, but I now work regularly for numerous shops in Umbria and central Italy, which have decided to offer their customers a carbon repair service, and, of course, for private individuals who ask me to do so. Until now, I have never used any kind of advertising; simple word of mouth has worked. However, I have now decided to develop this business, encouraged by the continuous increase in work, but above all by the smile that appears on the face of those who come to see me as soon as they see their repaired bicycle frame.

Self Made Biker

When I get really passionate about something, I want to explore it thoroughly and master it completely. In fact, not content with competing with bicycles I built myself, I also started taking care of my physical training on my own. Since I don't like improvising, I research and read any book on new cycling training techniques, applying what I learn first to myself and then to my competitive cycling friends. I have been using an SRM power meter since 2004, so I have developed a fair amount of knowledge about the use of such tools in training methods. In addition, my knowledge of English and the Internet allows me to keep up to date with the latest methods in this field. Specifically, I am referring to the use of the "WKO + Training Peaks" software for processing the data provided by the power meter during training and cycling competitions... but that's another story, and I hope to tell it later if the results are positive.

Experiences with compounds

Although my adventure in cycling began just over 10 years ago, my acquaintance with carbon fibre began much earlier: I have 20 years of experience with composite materials. In the early 1990s, my passion was not bicycles, but a wonderful sport called windsurfing. Obviously, it didn't take long before I started building my own boards at home, using the legendary carbon fibre and VACUUM SANDWICH technology. A local factory, Drops, well known to those in the industry, noticed my creations at the time and asked me to collaborate with them. So I started producing some carbon fibre board components for them in my spare time, as they say. The collaboration continued for a few years, until the company decided to relocate its production activities to more economically advantageous sites abroad. Shortly thereafter, I discovered cycling.

A life like Archimedes

Building is my oldest and truest passion. My first experiences date back 38 years ago, when at the age of 8 I began building bows and arrows, later moving on to the production of gunpowder and related weapons: bombs, rifles, pistols. Fortunately, when I was about 13, a failed experiment convinced me to abandon these dangerous activities, and the following year I discovered engines with the purchase of a Vespa 50. Over the next two years, I immediately became the go-to guy in the Perugia area for 2-stroke engine tuning. Even back then, I loved to research things thoroughly, voraciously reading everything available on the subject, primarily the legendary Mototecnica, a cult magazine for those who loved to seriously explore the technical aspects and weren't limited to the usual bar talk. I haven't changed much since then. Building my own surfboards and bikes by hand was, in fact, just the natural evolution of my greatest passion: researching, understanding how things work, building them and improving them whenever possible.