When I got ready to sell my first batch of triplizer chainrings--originally I only made them in the 122 BCD Stronglight pattern--I gave some sustained thought to what I should call the business, such as it then was.
I almost went with Verismo Components. I have long been something of an opera fan--though far from an opera nerd, still less an opera dweeb--and verismo was a late 19th-century Italian movement in to steer opera away from the doings of kings and the nobility and more toward the lives of the common people. My Italian is extremely limited, but I do know that "verismo" is derived from "verita," meaning "truth."
That's for me, I figured--I'm a truthful man of the common people. Problem solved.
The fellow pictured above, incidentally, is Pietro Mascagni, whose 1890 opera Cavalleria rusticana was a huge sensation when it first appeared, and is still regarded as a great classic of the verismo style. It's still performed today, usually on a double bill with Ruggiero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, which debuted two years later. (Both are short operas, and stringing them together brings them up to a more typical operatic length, and gives the audience the feeling that it's getting its money's worth.)
Here's Luciano Pavarotti singing the Pagliacci's best-known aria, "Vesti La Giubba ("Put on the Costume."). Even if you're not familiar with opera at all, you may recognize it anyway--it's one of those operatic numbers that's leaked over into the culture at large:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0PMq4XGtZ4
That pairing is familiarly known as "Cav and Pag." That being so, it hardly seems fair to give Pietro Mascagni a photo without doing the same for Ruggerio Leoncavallo, so here he is:
That's for me, I figured--I'm a truthful man of the common people. Problem solved.
The fellow pictured above, incidentally, is Pietro Mascagni, whose 1890 opera Cavalleria rusticana was a huge sensation when it first appeared, and is still regarded as a great classic of the verismo style. It's still performed today, usually on a double bill with Ruggiero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, which debuted two years later. (Both are short operas, and stringing them together brings them up to a more typical operatic length, and gives the audience the feeling that it's getting its money's worth.)
Here's Luciano Pavarotti singing the Pagliacci's best-known aria, "Vesti La Giubba ("Put on the Costume."). Even if you're not familiar with opera at all, you may recognize it anyway--it's one of those operatic numbers that's leaked over into the culture at large:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0PMq4XGtZ4
That pairing is familiarly known as "Cav and Pag." That being so, it hardly seems fair to give Pietro Mascagni a photo without doing the same for Ruggerio Leoncavallo, so here he is:
He looks quite a lot like Giachomo Puccini, doesn't he? Actually, it's not that strong a resemblance physically--it's mostly the wonderful moustache that makes it seem so.
Well, heck, now having said that, I guess I also have to include a photo of Puccini. Okay, here he is, at stage left:
Eventually, though, I gave up on Verismo as a potential name, mostly because I thought it would be confusing to give an Italian name to a company whose only product was triplizer ring for French cranksets.
Instead, I came up with Red Clover Components, for two reasons. First, red clover is the Vermont state flower. I live in Vermont, and that's where the chainrings are made. Also, clover plants have three leaves, which struck me as nicely emblematic for a product called a triplizer.
I assumed that lots of people would want to know where the name came from, so I have had that explanation cued up and ready to go for the better part of a decade. But since no one has asked yet, I'm just putting the explanation out there unprompted.
For the sake of symmetry, I suppose, it would be best if I also had a third reason for the Red Clover Components name. No doubt I could come up with a plausible-sounding after-the-fact one if I tried, but that would be slightly dishonest of me. Verismo!
Well, heck, now having said that, I guess I also have to include a photo of Puccini. Okay, here he is, at stage left:
Eventually, though, I gave up on Verismo as a potential name, mostly because I thought it would be confusing to give an Italian name to a company whose only product was triplizer ring for French cranksets.
Instead, I came up with Red Clover Components, for two reasons. First, red clover is the Vermont state flower. I live in Vermont, and that's where the chainrings are made. Also, clover plants have three leaves, which struck me as nicely emblematic for a product called a triplizer.
I assumed that lots of people would want to know where the name came from, so I have had that explanation cued up and ready to go for the better part of a decade. But since no one has asked yet, I'm just putting the explanation out there unprompted.
For the sake of symmetry, I suppose, it would be best if I also had a third reason for the Red Clover Components name. No doubt I could come up with a plausible-sounding after-the-fact one if I tried, but that would be slightly dishonest of me. Verismo!
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