Why are so many racing bikes made in Belgium and the Netherlands but with an Italian name? You often see advertisements on 2dehands.be with texts such as Italian bicycle for sale or real Italian bike for sale, but in fact the bicycle is of Belgian or Dutch manufacture.
As a non expert it is not always easy to distinguish the real Italian bicycle from the Belgian version. Some bicycle repair shops even went so far as to engrave the Italian flag in the frame. Some sounding names are Giacomelli, Venturelli, Colnero, Clemenso, ...
Why an Italian name?
Italy indeed has a richer bicycle history than Belgium or the Netherlands in the field of frame building, but there used to be a lot of small bicycle repair shops, not as is now the case with globalization with mainly multinationals such as Trek, Specialized, Giant,…
Every village used to have a bicycle maker that bought its steel tubes and lugs and marketed the bicycle under its own name. In the early 1970s there was a hype to ride Italian bicycles, they were more aesthetic, more beautiful and more attractive. Made in Italy has always been an important trademark.
Some bicycle makers started to produce their own bicycles with an Italian name. Some brought the frames directly from Italy, placed their own decals on them, engraved them with their logo and then assembled them in their studio.
The most important Belgian ones can be found below. By clicking on the name you get more info
If information is missing or you still know about other Belgian bicycle makers, you can always send me an email to info@vintagefiets.be
You can find the most important Dutch brands in the article Dutch bicycle brands that sound very Italian
- Martelly
- Colnero
- Capino
- Ampello
- Fangio
- Venturelli
- U-Scanini
- Zannata
- Comati
- Giacomelli
- Carillo
- Clemenso
- Corona
- Andere
Martelly
Martelly is the bicycle brand of the Martens family and was founded in the early 1980s. The Martens family makes bicycle frames from before the Second World War. They were one of the largest Belgian frame builders and supplied, among others, the Flandria team, the Poeders Man team and built the frameworks of Michel Pollentier, Etienne De Wilde, Roger Illegems, Berten de Kimpe and Willy Vanneste, among others.
They have also delivered many frames to other bicycle manufacturers such as Colnero, Empella, Loverdi, Diamant, Concorde, Devos Sport and many others.
From 1980 they have built no less than 25,000 frames in 20 years.
Currently Martelly still makes custom steel bicycle frames, they use Columbus and Dedacciai tubes for this. You can also order a new custom retro bike.
Colnero
Bicycles from Putte Kapellen, information is missing
Capino
Capino is the trademark of Fietsen Capino from Wevelgem. Marcel Pinnoo started his own bicycle shop in 1945, but the Capino brand was only founded in 1971 after the idea of daughter Monique and her husband André Catry. Capino comes from Catry en Pinoo
They have been making Capino bicycle frames for 35 years. The shop still exists and is operated by grandson Xavier Catry.
Ampello
Bicycles with the Ampello brand were built by Ampe, a bicycle repair shop in Torhout (West Flanders). The bicycle shop has been around since 1936 and was then called Huis Alfons Ampe.
Fangio
Ex teammate of Eddy Merckx Guido Reybrouck starts a wholesale trade in racing bikes of the brand Fangio at the end of his career. The name comes from his son Fangio. Guido is clearly a fan of Italy after his long career with the Italian cycling team Faema.
In 1994 he leaves everything to his son who opens Fangio bicycles in Aartrijke in West Flanders.
Venturelli
Bonaventure from Hooglede has been making custom bicycle frames for more than 90 years. Around the 1980s the racing bikes had the resounding Italian name Venturelli and nowadays Scatto. Currently, the name Venturelli is only given to regular bicycles and E-bikes.
Venturelli comes from the name Ventura, from the founder Bonaventure. In the late 1960s, a professional team was even sponsored, namely Etalo-Ventura in 1968 and Etalo-Siriki-Ventura in 1969, beiden met ploegleider Jozef Braeckevelt.
U-Scanini
Bicycle manufacturer Bart Verhaegen from Beauvechain (Bevekom) founded this brand in 1987, but has since stopped (when exactly is not known). Bart used Italian frames and an Italian flag is even engraved in the frame. The most famous rider who rode their bikes was Eric Vanderaerden
Dit bericht bekijken op InstagramBeautiful Belgium bike . #uscanini #vintagebike #retrobike #roadbikevintage #artbicyclevintage
Zannata
Zannata from Sint Niklaas is a fairly new bicycle manufacturer who have also given their bikes an Italian touch with the name Zannata. It is unclear when this producer started
Comati
The Comati brand was an acronym for Cools Marcel Tielt. This bicycle repair shop closed its doors in 2001, so that the Comati brand also disappeared. Marcel Cools died in 2017 from the consequences of lymph node cancer.
Marcel bought many frames from Vaneenooghe from Ruiselede, the chroming was done by Titan at Tielt and he did the painting himself.
Giacomelli
Giacomelli was a bicycle manufacturer from Geraardsbergen from 1983 to 2008
It was founded in 1898 by Oscar De Vleesschauwer and the bikes had the name Shrapnell which referred to the German word shrapnel or granate.
The main cyclists who rode a Shrapnell bicycle were the Belgian track cyclist Jef "Poeske" Scherens who became world champion sprint no less than 7 times before and after WWI.
Marc Van Yperzeele joined the company in 1976 and in 1983 he introduced the name Giacomelli, which became the racing bicycle line. Due to a lack of follow-up, the family sold the company in 2008.
The new owners, Liesbeth Sarens and her husband Ad Kuijte, tried to relaunch Giacomelli. How it ended is unclear.
Carillo
These bicycles are also said to have been made by Marcel Cools from Tielt (Comati)
Clemenso
Bicycle brand from Diest, started in 1980, which also included a number of professional teams and semi-professional teams.
Dit bericht bekijken op Instagram
Professional team Femis Bank - Elro Snacks - Pony from 1981 on bicycles of the Clemenso brand
Corona
Brand of the Roelens - Thoria brothers from Torhout
Corona bike from private collection of Erik Boelen
Corona bike from private collection of Erik Boelen
Other Belgian bicycle brands with an Italian name
- Rogeri: from Rogeri Bike Shop in Bocholt. They also make bicycle clothing
- Primorosso: from Primator Zwijndrecht
- Superia: after a quarrel between the 2 brothers Aimé and Rémy Claeys, Aimé decides to set up the bicycle brand Superia
- Barrosi – Donadi Cycles Steenokkerzeel
- Lugano
- Lanciano
- Sangiorgio
- Primavera
- Delira
- Bercinni
- Luverdy: since 1993 brand of Ludo Verdyck from Brasschaat, Luverdy is now in the group iBike of Marc Groven
- Finila: bicycle brand of FIetsen NIco LAuwaert from Beveren Waas
- Bogardi: bicycle brand from André Bogaert from Koersel (Beringen)
- Uberto: bicycle brand from Hubert Vansteelant from La Louvière
- Arezzo: The Belgian bicycle brand Norta once marketed a series of racing bicycles that were named Arezzo. How Norta got this name is unknown to me. The only Arezzo I know is the Tuscan city of Arezzo.
