Bikes on Film: Stranger Things

 

Aright I know i'm little behind with the Stranger Things, but i'm catching up, on season 3 now and, well... 

there was really no way to not notice the Ceramiche Ariostea cycling cap worn by the character Lucas Sinclair. The show has always done a quite good job of replicating the '80s, the time period of its setting, the cap being just one of many instances of the shows researcher(s) nailing the realism. I mean, in my world cycling caps are pretty iconic accessories, the name on one conjuring a pretty specific period of time. 

Ariostea, the professional team, had its start in 1984 and lasted until 1993. Silvano Contini brought the team some big wins beginning in 1985, though most of their biggest names and wins came during the late '80s though to '93, including Rolf Sorensen, Adriano Baffi, Moreno Argentin, Davide Cassani, with a highly capable supporting cast including Massimiliano Lelli, Bruno Cenghialta, Giorgio Furlan, Rolf Golz, Alberto Elli, Pascal Richard and Bjarne Riis.

Back to Stranger Things though. In some way, I suppose, it was de rigueur to expect to see middle school kids riding bikes to get around - they still did that quite often in the 1980s, but the cap is the piece de résistance, the cherry on the sundae, and I've got to wonder who it was on the production team who had the wherewithal to introduce it. You and I would spot it right off, but to the general public it would more likely be a vague reference easily overlooked. A Chicago Cubs, or Cleveland Indians cap might have been a more popular, and recognizable, choice. Yet, neither of those would have been as quirky or fitting.