non-fixie 

In the sixties and seventies quite a few bike shops in Holland had their own house brands. Some built their own frames, but more often than not the frames were sourced from specialist builders in Holland or Belgium. The brand names were often Italian, or Italian-sounding. Vittorio, Chinetti, Loverdi, Cascarsi, Cornelo and Colossi are all Dutch brands.

One of those brands is Giovanni. I'd heard of it (I had read somewhere that Laurens ten Dam still has one - and rides it as a fixie ) so when a nice-looking orange example in my size came up for sale I was interested.

I picked it up yesterday from the original owner, and when he told me that not only Sportshop Slikker still existed, but also that I would drive right past it on my way home, I made the detour and arrived at the shop near closing time. As luck would have it, both Ria and Piet Slikker, who started the shop in 1976, were there and were kind enough to let me bring in the bike and check it out. It was nice to see that the shop and the Giovanni brand are still very much alive.

Apparently this example is from the late seventies (it has no serial number, but the round shop sticker on the DT was only used for a few years) and the frame is of Belgian origin, supplied by Wout Verhoeven. Verhoeven, who had his own shop near Rotterdam, was not only the Campagnolo distributor for Holland at the time, but also acted as a wholesaler of Belgian-built 'no-name' racing frames to many Dutch bike shop owners who wanted to have their own brand. Even some of the bigger names who did build their own frames (Vittorio, Jan de Reus) used Belgian frames for their second-tier offerings. This was not widely advertised of course, and as the frames carry no builder's marks it's not easy to find out who actually built a frame.

Anyway, here is the bike. I just had time for quick wipe-down with a damp cloth before taking these pictures as the daylight was fading.

The bike weighs 10.7 kgs (24 lbs) as pictured. Not too bad for a 64 cm frame with clinchers.

JohnDThompson 

Sakae Ringyo "Royal" crank with factory drillium rings, perhaps?

non-fixie 

SR "Apex":

bikemig 

I like it. Good looking bike and neat back story to the bike.

Giacomo 1 

Pretty bike.

I don't want to ask you what you paid for her, but I have no idea how to value one of these Dutch bikes with Italian names.

non-fixie 

Thanks. As for values for 'Dutch bikes with Italian names': they vary wildly. In our market from around €100 for a complete bike with a Reynolds or Columbus frame in decent shape from a lesser-known brand up to more than €500 for a well-presented Vittorio randonneur.

cb400bill

I need an orange bike.

Steve Whitlatch 

That is a very nice looking bike!!

3speedslow

I am not agreeing with your stated bike list" all the ones that nobody else wants". I most certainly want that bike.

I haven't seen any of your bikes that I would not want in my stable.

Thanks for for the show and tell ! Good work. I say again, ORANGE !

CMAW 

It's a Derycke frame, builder/shop in the south of Brussels. Derycke sold bikes under his own name as well, the classy lug cutout being his Italianlike signature.

non-fixie 

Thanks, CMAW! That is interesting information. Was he the only one using these cutouts? Recently someone else on this forum pointed to Martens, and I seem to remember having seen them in combination with a Kessels decal.

non-fixie 

Oh, and when I had the opportunity to speak to Wout Verhoeven himself last fall, he named Dija as his supplier.

CMAW 

As far as I know: yes, just him. I've only seem them on genuine Derycke frames or various LBS branded bikes. Dossche Sport as well, maybe that's were the link with Martens comes from.


Never heard of Dija before, was that a frame builder?

non-fixie 

I'm assuming he meant these guys.

CMAW 

Ah OK, maybe for the painting, it doesn't say they actually built road frames on their website. Your Giovanni is an exact match of a Derycke I went to check out last year (not only the cutout), and all the other ones I've seen from the late 70ies/early 80ies are very similar. My guess is that neither Kessels (who had his own signature cutout) nor Martens (a much more reputed builder) would just imitate Deryckes lug treatment on demand.

non-fixie 

I see now that the English version of the website to which I linked is a little too compact in terms of information, I think. The Dutch version states that Dija started their specialization in building frames in 1963. The Oostcolor paint shop was added in 1976.

That seems logical. And I did a search for 'derycke velo' which yielded a number of bikes with similar features.

non-fixie 

And here's mr Giovanni himself, with the bike. At 67 he still looks pretty lean and mean.