Ladies and gentleman, introducing...

..."Velos Classiques" rentals of vintage racing bicycles! Click the link in the right-hand column for details.

   With the paved Schuylkill Trail just a few blocks from my house, and with an obvious hole in bike rental choices for road-worthy machines at local shops, the idea occurred to me that the bicycles that have been hanging in my rafters for a long time could be put to use. I also realized that, until we pull out of this prolonged, post-COVID bicycle industry funk, it would be great to find another way to get my build projects out into the public eye.

   A couple of years ago a gentleman from San Francisco contacted me regarding prospective rentals. Thomas was visiting his mother in nearby Limerick and wished to take a ride into Philadelphia on the trail. I told him that I didn't have any paperwork in place, but I had been considering making bikes available, and doing so shouldn't be very difficult.

   I invited him over to the shop to talk about the prospect and to take a look at what I had available. A late-1980s green and white Scapin I had in stock really appealed to him, and he asked at what price I was currently listing the bike. The dollar amount must have been right, because his plan became buying the bike so that he could leave it at his mother's place so that he would always have something to ride when he visited in the future.

   Ideally something similar would happen, but keeping the bikes clean and in top-quality operation will be a priority, anyway. I considered that, if necessary, replacing some bar tape and/or tires are small steps to again take one of these used bicycles to the final level of "sale condition" a customer might prefer.

   Certainly my first though is toward someone vacationing in the area, but if someone wanted to use a bike for a ride event featuring vintage machines or if they just wanted to give one of these cool historic bicycles a try, they would be more than welcome to rent from Cycle Tech!   

   I completed the assembly of the Tommasini Racing Strada bicycle the other day and took it out for some photos before listing it. I had purchased the bike from a connection I had made with a guy in New Jersey who also did some restoration builds for resale. The Tommasini was Steve's racing bike back-in-the-day, and it has a few nicks and "patina" that you can expect from a well-used machine, but he took reasonably good care of it, and maybe most-importantly, it was never crashed!

   I left the U.S. Cycling Federation sticker Steve had applied to the seat tube and the Mavic decals he had put on the fork legs. They could be easily removed if a buyer wished to do so!

   The frame came with a cool set of Tommasini-engraved Campagnolo Nuovo Record shift levers, as well as a headset and bottom bracket from that gruppo. Steve also included a set of classic Cinelli Giro d'Italia bars and a 1A stem. I collected the rest of the components to complete the Nuovo Record group, and added a set of wheels from my stock, built from Mavic MA40 rims and a beautiful set of Campagnolo Croce d'Aune hubs.