This article was first published in Rouleur Issue 141 and was produced in collaboration with Stelbel
For Rouleur Live 2025, legendary Italian custom bike brand Stelbel teamed up with the award-winning graphic designer Matt Willey to create a unique one-off version of its SB/04 flagship road bike – a collaboration that combined five decades of cycling heritage with striking contemporary design. Inspired by the partnership between the brand’s founder Stelio Belletti and the Polish cycling federation, resulting in gold for Poland in the 1975 World Championships team team trial, Willey reimagined the classic white-and-red racing colours into a bold, modern livery that references details such as the names of the Polish riders, the Belgian location of the 100-kilometre parcours and their finishing time – just 5.5 seconds ahead of the Soviet quartet.
The result is more than a beautifully built TIG-welded steel machine or an anniversary special edition, it’s the story of a defining moment in Stelbel’s history. It’s also a tribute to Belletti himself, the first to TIG-weld bicycle frames, who died in 2023.
There’s also a story within a story – what sparked the idea for the collaboration? How did Stelbel and the acclaimed US-based graphic designer, who was art director of the New York Times magazine for five years and is now a partner at design studio Pentagram, get together?
“Back in 2022 we had a similar project that we presented at Rouleur Live,” says Andrea Cimò, Stelbel co-owner. “The designer then was Francesco Franchi – he’s well known in Italy and internationally. The project turned out really well and we were very happy with it. Francesco told us about a friend of his, Matt Willey, who is a very talented graphic designer. We thought maybe we could do something similar, so we got in touch with Matt. He replied immediately, saying that he had been a fan of Stelbel for a long time, that he’d been dreaming about owning a Stelbel, and that he followed all of our social media posts. We clicked immediately.
“At that point the deal was basically done. Matt would design something using his own inspiration, with the goal of having a bike ready for Rouleur Live 2025.”
Stelbel gave Willey complete creative freedom and Cimò put together a folder with images, logos, and “bits of Stelbel’s heritage – very random things, nothing specific”.
Instead, says Cimò, “Matt went down a rabbit hole, started digging into Stelbel’s history and discovered the story of the gold medal won by the Polish national team on Stelbel bikes. That wasn’t the original idea at all – the Polish livery came entirely from Matt. He did all the research himself. He found the pictures, the stories, everything. That really surprised me – how much effort he put into understanding the brand and its history to find inspiration for the graphics.”
Willey repurposed graphics and typography from the original 1970s equipment and apparel: “For example, he found a photo of a sweater worn by the Polish team in the 1970s. The font used on that sweater is the same that he used for the ‘Stelbel’ lettering on the down tube. Everything started from original images. That era has such a strong visual identity, and Matt was able to merge that with his own style very naturally.”
How did the process work technically – transferring Willey’s design onto the SB/04 frame?
“That was also his job. The only thing we handled was adapting the graphics to the different tube sizes — not so much the tube diameters, but overall frame proportions. Matt had access to Pentagram’s tools and, since he wasn’t able to visit the factory in Bergamo, he 3D-printed a full frame just to wrap the graphics around it to check that they all worked properly. That was another thing that really surprised me.”
Were there any challenges in transposing Willey’s design onto the frame in real life?
“There were,” says Cimò, “but we didn’t want to compromise or ask Matt to change anything, so we decided to take on the challenges ourselves. To replicate the smallest details, we weren’t 100 per cent happy with the results using hand-painting, so we contacted a local supplier for waterslide decals. We normally don’t use decals – everything on our frames is painted – but because we also do restoration work, we have access to this kind of supplier. So on the Matt Willey bike, everything is hand-painted except for the very tiny text, which is applied as waterslide decals.
“The other big challenge is that all layers have to be very thin for the paint to look good and remain durable. That’s something not many painters can do at the level we require. When you add more colours, it becomes even more difficult. But we pulled it off.”
Looking at the whole project, what is Cimò most proud of? “Honestly, I don’t even know why we didn’t come up with the idea ourselves – celebrating the 50th anniversary of such a unique achievement for a micro-brand like Stelbel.
I was genuinely moved that Matt came up with this idea. It’s something extremely remarkable and absolutely worth celebrating. And of course, the final result is beautiful – Matt’s talent is undeniable. It’s amazing that four Polish riders won the gold medal on Stelbel frames in 1975, and it’s equally amazing that a designer like Matt designed a Stelbel bike in 2025. Both things feel very special.”
Given the amount of work it took to produce the scheme, it seems unlikely Stelbel will make many bikes with the Matt Willey paint? “Matt’s design is not for sale – we decided to keep it as a one-off. The one we displayed at Rouleur Live will stay in our collection and in the spring we’ll paint Matt’s personal bike with the same design. Those will be the only two. It will be Matt’s first Stelbel – in his words, owning a Stelbel is a dream come true.”
