From what I have heard Fangio is/was a Belgian racing team rather than a manufacturer. I bought some Fangio-branded tubular tires on Ebay last year from a guy in northern France.

Where are all the Belgium frames?

Belg-Ital Steel has them all!

Thanks for posting this one. Very elegant!

To add to the zombie thread… Found one that Belg-Ital Steel doesn't have. Dutch frame builder for Belgian bike shop.

Please, do tell and show us more. I've only seen Belgian frames built for Dutch bike shops, not the other way around.

The frame was built by Dutchman Peter van de Klundert in ~1984. He is founder of Sirocco Bikes in Hoogerheide, NL near the Belgian border. Apparently the bike was assembled and sold by Hakima Bicycles near Brussels. I bought the bike from the original owner, who purchased it there in 1985. My wife and I will be there on vacation next month and I need to get some good pictures of the bike so I can stop by the shop in Hoogerheide and see if anyone recognizes it.

Thanks, SvenMN. According to the website, yours must be a very early one. Van de Klundert hadn't even finished high school in 1984, if I read it correctly.

Interesting observation non-fixie. Perhaps the original owner has his dates off, or maybe there is something else off with the history I received… that is why it will be good fun to stop by the shop with some good pictures. Just wishing I had the time/resources to send the bike over ahead of us. Maybe some day ;-)

The sun is out here today… I will see if I can get a decent picture to post.

Ignore the later pedals, the wired speedo, and the Lizard Skin bar wrap (over the original black leather).

Remember seen a couple of U.scanini moving around in the forums.

Looks nice! But from the paint scheme and the build I'd say it's a couple of years younger. The date codes on the parts from the original build might give you a further clue.

Hi
Anyone can help me to know who was the most likely frame builder for the belgium frames ridden by pro's like De Mulder or Desmet during early 60's ? (Groene Leeuw, Solo ....)
Thanks

Maybe look up Arthur Maertens. He was a Belgium builder during that time frame. His son Eddy Martens took over in the 80's.

Welcome, jordic1968! WRT to Groene Leeuw, the girl you want to talk to is Mieke Smeulders. She and her SO Jan are regulars at most C&V swap meets in Belgium and Holland. If you're in the area, you'll probably know what to do. If not, let me know, and I'll see if I can relay your questions when I see them.

Groene Leeuw was a rather important manufacturer.
Most of the team bikes were made by them.

Some specific stories although. Mieke knows them

That would be fantastic ! unfortunately I'm from Barcelona, Spain , so liitle bit far away

The issue is I got recently what I thing could be a bike from Nöel Foré, that I date about 1960 (when he was riding for GL). It has NF stamped on the bottom bracked and the story matches what I've been told by the seller.

Problem is that the frame looks like a Cinelli !!! So would like if anyone can confirm Cinelli or Marastoni could had built a bike for Nöel in the early - mid 60's. I've seen pics from Eddy Merckx when he was at Solo-SUperia standing on a bike that really looks like a cinelli from the seat lug. And Rik Van Looy is said to rode Masi...

Anyhow, I'm interested to know more about this bike bike that has NF stamped on the BB and looks like a Cinelli and any potential relationship with the GL team. If it would be possible to be one of Nöel's bike when he was riding for GL, the goal should be to know the right colours , so I can restore it as close as the original. Right now, the frame is in bare metal .

Any chance you have to speak to them and help me on this research I'd appreciate very much. Let's see if I get 10 posts soon so I can post also some pics

Thanks much

Excellent plan!

NF, without pictures, would make me think about "Norme Francaise" , something the french were stamping on any product to be certified.
Superia had a similar "bad" design of the seat post lug and had nothing to do with Cinelli.
I write bad because it was well known by the competitors that this design was not strong enough to clamp correctly the saddle post.

Van Looy was know for his Galmozzi.
Merck, however...

Noel ran also for Superia.

Pictures?

Thanks for all the comments. I can not post pics as not reached yet 10 posts, and I've learned a lot form the 60's but I've decided I will not restore it myself, so just listed on ebay in case some one else is interested. Maybe wrongly listed if not a cinelli but a Superia, I'll ammend that just in case.

Your average Belgian hates cyclists because they get in the way of drivers speeding on their way to work and back home. The only time Belgians like cyclists is in spring classic season, when they get to take the day off, set up their picnics along the road, and get drunk. Most people watching those races are drunk, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Plus, given all the Italian bikes that most europeans grew up with, what's the use of trying to out-do the Italians? It just can't be done.

However, now that cycling has changed to carbon-fiber-everything, there's no reason a Belgian company couldn't get into the game. On the other hand, given that beer is the Belgians' main contribution to city life, there is probably more beer-drinking going on than cycling.

If you really want to know, beer is probably one of the most important cultural and consumer goods produced in Belgium. There are still six or seven monastaries making traditional beer and there is a yeast storage facility going back hundreds of years to protect beer integrity. Not much hops are produced in Belgium though; their beer is sweet and not a lot of hops are used brewing, esp as compared to Germany or England.

So probably, given that Belgium's industrial days are long gone, as well as the cycing class that went with it, unless bikes can be 3D printed, there probably isn't going to be a serious bicycle industry there. In the end however, it is still a "great cycling nation" even though it's more of a pasttime and you will always find beer in every cycling event in Belguim.

Cheers

Carlos 1983

Since this has been revived.

My 1985 Martelly in it's current form. Spent way too much in upgrades for it, LOL!

https://pbase.com/jhuddle/image/171216090

'83 Superia Gemini that's been relabelled a Guerciotti. The O22 tubes and shop sticker are original.


Original model looked much nicer.

Thank you for posting this.

I have a few Superias, and it is nice to know where the were in the line-up. The nicest is an Apollo Super Star, which is a little too small, regrettably. Ishiwata 022, Shimano 600: