Stelio Belletti

They produced fuselages for some important aeronautical companies in Milan, working for the most part with the Società Italiana Ernesto Breda where his father, Antenore Belletti, apprenticed in the years before the war started.

The Belletti Workshop, driven by the aviation industry, was one of the first in Italy to acquire TIG welding equipment from the American company Miller.

Starting in the 60s, other important brands such as Linto, Puch Frigerio, and Guazzoni begin to commission the Belletti family to build prototypes and special motorcycle frames for racing.

That year, Mike Hailwood was to take part in the World Championship with a Honda 500 GP, but after the initial testing carried out that winter, the road racer began to complain about the performance of the frame.

Referred by specialist Giuseppe Pattoni, Hailwood approached Stelio and Antenore Belletti as a private customer and commissioned them to construct a new chassis for his Honda 500 GP.

In 1975, Stelio Belletti patented the first bicycle frame welded with TIG welding techniques in Italy and that same year produced the frames for the Polish national team, who went on to win the gold medal in the men’s team time trial race at the UCI Road World Championships in Mettet.

Over the following years, Belletti collaborated with other Italian brands producing TIG welded frames made with steel or aluminum tubing.