Originally Posted by
Locomotief
I picked up the bike yesterday. The previous owner told me he bought a secondhand frame at wim vissers shop. Wim then had it repainted at an other place. Like you I'm starting to think there was a small painting company where you could have your bike done with these decals.
So it could be that both wim visser end daan sprey had a few frames done there. According the previous owner the paint job was a special kind of process. He mentioned the word "Moffelen" what translates in powdercoating. Maybe something new at that time.
I did a quick Google check and p slikker was a well known bike shop there. They had there own brand off bikes called the "giovanni". I gave them a call but the shop has new owners. They told me that the old owner would be more then happy to talk about the history of his shop. So that might be a lead to check out.
Excellent info! Thank you.
It would be interesting to follow up on this. Daan Spreij and Piet Slikker are of the same generation, were operating in the same area (North Holland), and were/are both active cyclists as well. There's a good chance they knew each other.
When I picked up my Giovanni in Alkmaar five years ago I drove by the Slikker shop on the way back, just in time to catch Piet and his lovely wife Ria - who were still running the shop at the time - as they were closing up for the evening. The story and pics are here:
Show & Tell: Giovanni.
There are more interesting coincidences: these two guys were the only two brand owners I visited and asked (and got) to pose for me with their/my bikes. Besides the fact that both bikes are orange (
) there are more similarities between them. I would not be surprised at all if they both shared the same Belgian connection.
Piet Slikker with my Giovanni:
Daan Spreij with my Sprey:
