Track Cycling: Velodrome Racing and Training Area - giuseppe limongi

hi,

i have an opportunity to buy a mint limongi track bike with campy parts. i'm trying to find info on limongi but am not getting much. anything?

There was a frame builder who built for Paris Sport named Pepe' Limongi. Maybe the same person?

Same guy, Guiseppe "pepe" Limongi. I have a Limongi TT bike (with track ends!) and it has an "painted by..." sticker under the clearcoat that is in French. I thought that maybe he was/is French instead of Italian but then I have heard that he may have been building in Quebec after his stint at Paris Sport in New Jersey.

I would love to see pics if you have them.

vjp

ha, it's mine!

i found out that pepe built the frame for the owner of paris sport himself... it's beautiful, possibly the nicest thing i have ever owned. chrome head tube, gorgeous lugs.... ahhhhhh. i will post pics as soon as i clean the bike... it hasn't been ridden in over 15 years.

Someone I know just got his hands on a nice steel Limongi bike road bike. Dura-Ace gruppo. Campy wheels. I'll post a picture when I get a chance. It also has the "painted by ..." sticker on the frame.

Diablo, can't wait to see the pics!

"Emaille par Bob Desmarais" is the decal on mine.

vjp

here she is! what a dream come true.
http://velospace.org/files/limongi.JPG

http://velospace.org/files/limongifront.JPG
http://velospace.org/files/limongiscript.JPG

Thats a beautiful bike diablo. Fastback seatstays, chrome, fork crown, pantographed headlug... Any more pantographs or BB carving?

There is some info about Limongi here if you search a bit. It seems he built bike near Paris, moved to the US for Paris-Sport, and finally came to Québec. I'm from Québec and I'm very interested in local bicycles :P

A French poster, limongifan, mentionned Limongi pantographed his name on the headlug. It's funny, yours spells liNongi :)

Hey vjp, I have seen Desmarais bikes here. I don't know anything about him, but it's interesting to learn he painted bikes.

Beautiful! WOW!

Beautiful! WOW!

right on.

It's funny, yours spells liNongi :)



tee hee, it doesn't actually... my camera is just ****ty (every penny gets spent on bikes, thus, no decent camera :rolleyes: ).

it rides like a dream, which is no surprise, but it's the little details that make this bike. there is another g. limongi pantograph on the lug right below the headset. i'm extremely fond of the chrome head tube, myself.

two weeks before i bought her, i dropped a fair chunk of change (a fair chunk of change for me at least-- i'm a lowly bike store employee) on the miche track gruppo for my new build. when my boss offered to sell the limongi to me, i didn't hesitate for a second, even though it meant i'd have no money saved for school. but what was i supposed to do, seriously? i've been drooling over this bike for literally years, and it's not like i was going to find another.

according to my boss, it was built for the owner of the quebec factory by good ol' pepe. the owner gave it to my boss as a gift, but it was too small for him and was never ridden. it's been sitting in our shop on display for over a decade, gathering dust, cobwebs, and many admirers. and now it is mine!

the only thing i am not crazy about are the pedals, not because they aren't beautiful, but because i hate not riding clipless. if anyone has any suitable vintage peds they'd like to sell me, let me know!

tee hee, it doesn't actually... my camera is just ****ty (every penny gets spent on bikes, thus, no decent camera :rolleyes: ).

hehe. My bad actually: by squinting I can see the 'M' :P

It's a truly unique bike diablo. I don't think I've seen a bike with only the headtube chromed. Any more details on the BB shell?

If you want more info perhaps the 1st owner in Québec can be tracked, he would know a lot more. Out of curiosity where are you located?

That is fantastic! it might be that the whole frame is chromed with the main triangle painted as well. That was relatively common Italian frames in the 80s, usually with translucent paint though.

I don't think I've seen a bike with only the headtube chromed. Any more details on the BB shell?

If you want more info perhaps the 1st owner in Québec can be tracked, he would know a lot more. Out of curiosity where are you located?

i'm in victoria, bc. i'll bug my boss for more details.

i've NEVER seen a bike with the headtube chromed, and (like you, i'm sure) i've looked at thousands upon thousands of track bike pics. the bb shell has the cinelli logo engraved on it-- i wanted to take a pic but i didn't have an assistant to hold the bike up and no way was i going to fumble around and god forbid drop her. on that note, people keep asking me if i'm going to ride it or just display it.... ride it, of course. the reason my boss sold it to me is because it wasn't being ridden and it really deserves to be used: he did request that i would not use it as my daily commuter... obviously i won't, i've got plenty of beater fixies for that.

Agreed, the whole frame is probably chromed. Sometimes you see the headlugs chromed, but only the headtube is a first :)

Have fun with your bike! And keep digging for its history!

It's not often that a track bike just blows my mind, but SPLAT!

There are a lot of Canadian bikes with a weird history - Gardin (scandal!), Cambio Rino (imported an Italian builder, apparently), CCM (they made some nice Reynolds racing bikes in addition to the dept store krap). An acquaintance has an unlabelled bike that he swears is a Mariposa, though I think he's mixing it up with Marinonni. My wife has a Proctor touring bike built by Jim Moulden (who later built bikes under his own name) that is just gorgeous.

enjoy that ride, and watch for potholes!

An acquaintance has an unlabelled bike that he swears is a Mariposa, though I think he's mixing it up with Marinonni.
Mariposa and Marinoni are both Canadian builders, why do you think he mixed them up?

i'll add your mind splat to the collection i've got going on ;-)

you've piqued my curiousity now: what's the scandal about gardin? and CCM making reynolds racing bikes????? that's f-ing incredible! my first bike ever was a CCM... although it was much loved (by me) as a neighborhood race bike, it was a kids singlespeed coaster brake jobby.


It's not often that a track bike just blows my mind, but SPLAT!

There are a lot of Canadian bikes with a weird history - Gardin (scandal!), Cambio Rino (imported an Italian builder, apparently), CCM (they made some nice Reynolds racing bikes in addition to the dept store krap). An acquaintance has an unlabelled bike that he swears is a Mariposa, though I think he's mixing it up with Marinonni. My wife has a Proctor touring bike built by Jim Moulden (who later built bikes under his own name) that is just gorgeous.

enjoy that ride, and watch for potholes!

i'll add your mind splat to the collection i've got going on ;-)

you've piqued my curiousity now: what's the scandal about gardin? and CCM making reynolds racing bikes????? that's f-ing incredible! my first bike ever was a CCM... although it was much loved (by me) as a neighborhood race bike, it was a kids singlespeed coaster brake jobby.

Yes, CCM made road bikes, and a few of them were reputedly quite good. The ones I know of are the Tour du Canada and the Flyer. I think they were constructed from Reynolds 531. I have a cool old book with some photos of both of these models in them. I will show it to you next time I see you.

Your bike is great. Can I have one now too???!!!??? Oh well, I better be careful, Waxwing will get upset...

-Leigh

Yup CCM made fine bikes in the 50's-60's. In fact Mike Barry & John Palmer from Mariposa recuperated their Reynolds tubes! See http://www.mariposabicycles.com/about.html

What I know about Gardin is that he had a fork lift compagny, he "imported" the Italian builder for the Cambio Rino bikes, and that apparently he labeled some tubes with Columbus decals while they weren't. I don't know for sure though.

We should start a thread about Canadian builders! There's Miele, Ryffranck, Marinoni...

So have you tried your beauty at the velodrome diablo?

There's Miele, Ryffranck, Marinoni...


...Cramerotti, True North, Mikado, Rocky Mountain...

...Cramerotti, True North, Mikado, Rocky Mountain...
...Winterborne, Naked, Norco, Bertrand, Desmarais (??), Kona, Devinci...

Originally posted by tuk
What I know about Gardin is that he had a fork lift compagny, he "imported" the Italian builder for the Cambio Rino bikes, and that apparently he labeled some tubes with Columbus decals while they weren't. I don't know for sure though.

I have a Rossi with Cambrio Rino group. Any relation?

Your bike is great. Can I have one now too???!!!??? Oh well, I better be careful, Waxwing will get upset...

-Leigh

bikes are pretty good at being polyamorous, i've found.... though belinda is pretty sad about getting knocked out of first place in my affections.

you'll have to butter up my boss if you want one, leigh. many have tried, somehow i succeeded...

Yup CCM made fine bikes in the 50's-60's. In fact Mike Barry & John Palmer from Mariposa recuperated their Reynolds tubes! See http://www.mariposabicycles.com/about.html

What I know about Gardin is that he had a fork lift compagny, he "imported" the Italian builder for the Cambio Rino bikes, and that apparently he labeled some tubes with Columbus decals while they weren't. I don't know for sure though.

We should start a thread about Canadian builders! There's Miele, Ryffranck, Marinoni...

So have you tried your beauty at the velodrome diablo?

thanks for the link! and now i'm glad i didn't fork out the cash for a gardin i saw on CL a few weeks back.

and yes, we should start a thread for the canucks.

and no, i haven't been to the velodrome. i've been sick with some sort of horrible plague since i got the bloody bike-- so unfair. i'm on the up and up now, though.

I have a Rossi with Cambrio Rino group. Any relation?
Yes, same Cambio Rino. :)...I think Rossi was a Canadian marque, no? Anyway, Cambio Rino bikes were constructed here in Canada by an Italian framebuilder. I may be wrong. Either that or they were distributed by Gardin...

Rossi is made in Italy. Really nice frame. The owner of ReMySport in Streetsville told me it was his late uncle who brought them into Canada. The Cambrio Rino group is supposedly Campy knock-off.

I've had a Limongi since 1991 as well and just love love love the ride. I haven't ridden much in the past 10 years but am finally getting back into it and planning to upgrade the entire bike and hopefully get the frame repainted, too.

Here's a little more info on Limongi: he did build in Quebec, in Trois Rivieres, to be precise. He apparently used to build frames for Pedro Delgado and Greg Lemond before they got really big. In the late 90s (I believe) he sold his business to Cycle Bertrand in Hull, Quebec. Unfortunately, Cycle Bertrand doesn't have a web site I can point you to.

Ah, here's the site: www.cyclegmbertrand.com (http://www.cyclegmbertrand.com/).