like many moto things around here, ceriani's story is a bit of a soap opera.... menani's stuff is made by paioli, while in the US, storz holds rights to the name.
found this bit of info when i bought a very good looking used monoshock for my XT600 supermoto, just couldnt figure out who where GCB until i found this document, read on..
"Arturo Ceriani (pronounced ‘cherry ahni’) was said to be an employee of MV Augusta who was asked
to leave in 1951 so that he could supply MV with suspension parts and magnesium wheel hubs. In 1964
Arturo’s son Enrico took charge of the company and built a new plant in Samarate, Italy. While the com
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pany was known to the end users as ‘Ceriani,’ within the suspension industry the company was known
as ‘ARCES.’ This name came from ARturo CEriani of Samarate. This is why the early original Ceriani triple
trees have the word ‘ARCES’ cast in on the underside of the lower triple. By 1972 Ceriani had sold 100,000
suspension units, but the demand outstripped their production capacity allowing competitors to poach
their market and by 1980 the Ceriani plant closed. In 1981 Enrico sold the remaining assets to Forcelle
Italia which produced the 38, 40 and 42mm Ceriani fork under license. Forcelle Italia went out of business
around 1995. The name stayed for sale until 1997 when it was purchased by Paioli. Meanwhile, Enrico in
1987 formed a partnership called G.C.B. Special Forks (Gazzaniga, Ceriani and Bianchi) which lasted for
a decade. During this time you could buy a 35mm road racing fork made by G.C.B. In 1989 Enrico, with
Steve Storz in the U.S. revived the Ceriani name. Paioli probably did not have the name under trademark
in the U.S. because the U.S. trademark law is based on ‘use’ as opposed to ‘registration.’ Steve, who was a
mechanic and tuner for Kenny Roberts, Don Castro and the Harley Davidson XR750 flat track racing team
became familiar with the forks when the 42mm flat track fork was introduced in 1984. The first U.S. made
Storz/Ceriani fork was introduced in 1998"
