2020 Bikes of the Month
2020 started off with a Boeris track bike from Turin, the home town of talented photographer and ‘ace’ mechanic Andrea Virgillito (Instagram: @virginski). The photo session was in the grounds of the new Technical University in Grangegorman in Dublin and we think it made a great backdrop for his work:
February’s BotM was another beauty from Italy, a Gianni Motta Personal 2000 with a very rare Campagnolo Croce D’Aune groupset.
When March arrived and the days started getting longer and we were all looking forward to the Summer and getting out and enjoying longer spins on our bikes, before our lives changed forever we had the pleasure and honour of featuring a stunning stainless steel frame from an Irish builder (Owen Byrne, Donard Cycles) and participant in the OldVelos Vintage Classic.
In April we saw what was possibly the most ‘Bling’ bike ever to appear on this site. This bike was the Colnago C35 from French collector Rubén Castro. It certainly brightened up was was looking to be a dark and grim time with world starting to realise how bad things really were.
But the bike that actually took the coveted title of ‘Bike of the Month April’ was the Gios Torino from another French Collector, Frédéric Guibal
Frédéric also provided an interesting video of the build process which is available here:-
May saw us heading west to Elmira, New York the home of Paul Kingsbury of Kingsbury Cyclery. The Cinelli Supercorsa is one that I lusted after as a youth and I don’t think I have quite got over it yet!
For June we were back on this side of the pond, in County Kerry in the south of Ireland. There was an interesting background story to this Tommasini and the owner put a lot of work into the bike. When you see the result we are sure you will agree that the hard work was worthwhile.
By July we were used to the idea that l’Eroica and the OldVelos Vintage Classic, as was the fantastic VeloRetro Festival, that we were all looking forward to would quite likely be cancelled. Fortunately we had another contribution from Andrea Virgillito from Turin to cheer us up! Have a look at his Sannino Contre la Montre
The origin of August’s BotM was a bit of a mystery (possibly an L.Zappa) from David Clark of New South Wales.
An Italian/Irish collectors latest purchase appeared as September’s ‘BotM’. This Moulton attracted a lot of attention on this site ad others where it appeared. Have a look at the images below and we think you will understand why!
There was something about Octobers BotM that really tugged a few heart strings here at the OldVelos and we spent some time reminiscing about our first loves/first bikes. The less said about the former the better! We think you will agree that John Farmer of Bristol, England did a tasteful and sympathetic restoration of his Viking (pre Brexit!) European. Unfortunately we did not have many images to share.
Andrea Virgillito shared another of his builds with us in November. It was a bit different from we would expect to see in his collection but no the less deserved appearing on this site. It was great to see an young Italian collector with an eye for a classic Harry Hall from Manchester
December’s ‘Bike of the Month’ was from collector and Irish expat Donal Turner who is now living in Portugal. It was a rare Marinoni from Quebec in Canada. It generated quite a bit of informative discussion about a subject that we knew little about, the Canadian builders.
We would to thank all our contributors were generously shared the images and information about their treasured bikes. Hopefully we will have more to show you this year. If you are willing to share your bike with us please use the form located here: <Bike of the Month Entry Form>. You could win a very stylish OldVelos cap!
