Composing Vintage Bikes: Two Approaches

There are lots of amazing bike builders out there welding steel and working through multi-year waiting lists to satisfy their customers, and Bikejuju has featured their work from the Portland and national hand built bike shows in the past. But today I’m featuring bike builders of a different kind. Craftspeople who assemble beautiful, functional bikes from a foundation of used parts, lovingly combined into a new old bike ready for a few thousand more miles on the road.

Bertelli is the New York enterprise of Francesco Bertelli, an Italian graphic and interactive designer with a passion for the clean lines of fixed gear bikes. He says, “I combine brand new parts with “new old stock” and vintage parts found at flea markets, old bike shops, collectors and from my trustworthy suppliers.”

Lovingly assembled one-by-one, the bikes are featured in simple, clean photographs on his website and then sold at impressive prices.

In an interview with the BoutiqueCycles.com website, Bertelli says “I’m passionate about the sport itself but more about the design and the fact that you can compose it like a piece of art.”

Insistent on composing bicycles where the logos are minimized and the elegance of the form is maximized, Bertelli told Boutiquecycles.com, “It all started because I couldn’t find the design I had in mind. It seems that a lot of manufacturers have not enough taste and they need to put big logos and ugly colors for their bikes.”

Sharing the love of vintage velos but inhabiting a more down-to-earth end of the spectrum on the opposite coast is Coco’s Variety in Los Angeles. The shop also takes older bikes with good bones, refurbishes them, and sells them at very reasonable prices.

Says their website, “We believe the bicycle with the greatest positive impact on the environment is a fading champion that has already served a meaningful life and is resuscitated for a second chance at glory.” In addition to a sidewalk full of bikes at their store, they are posting refurbished bikes to their blog all the time. Here’s a typical example:

Built from a rusty component Schwinn, this single speed conversion has a wonderful black and red frame with a great patina. Very solid frame. LOTS of new components including new chain, cranks, rear wheel, single speed freewheel, pedals, tires, bar tape, brake cables, brake pads and saddle. 57CM $260.

Not bad for $260! In fact, Coco’s says they typically have between 15 and 50 bikes in stock, and that they have sold bikes for prices between $1 and $1000. Like Bertelli, they love the lines of classic old bikes – the Coco’s “want” list includes “quality European, Japanese and American road bicycles – especially team bikes or other items with history.” They are more than happy to buy and sell those beauties.

But mostly, they are focused on getting everyone onto bikes, at a variety of price points, and even exhibit an admirable willingness to buy rusted bikes that have been rescued from the LA River.

So… it’s spring. Time to get yourself a nice, refurbished bike, and hit the streets. Right?

Bertelli’s and Coco’s – opposite coasts, slightly different approaches to the process of refurbishing old bikes. But both put people on pedals, and save classic parts from the scrap heap, and that’s what we like to see.

Neither shop delivers, so if you want a bike from either one, you’ll have to stop by in person.