Italvega
 Italvega logo head badge | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Bicycle production |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Founder | Ben Lawee |
| Defunct | 1977, restart 2016 |
| Fate | Production moved to Japan under new name |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | World |
| Products |
|
| Owner | Nicholas Hurenkamp |
Italvega is a brand of road bicycles designed, specified, imported and marketed by the California-based bicycle distributor, Lawee, Inc., founded by Ben Lawee, who also created the Univega and Bertoni bicycle brands.
Italvega bikes were designed and hand-built within the noted Torresini workshop at the Torpado factory in Padua, Italy. They were built beginning in 1970 and continuing through the mid- to late-1970s before manufacturing was moved to Japan under the name Univega. All Italvega bicycles were made in the Torpado factory, but not all were high-end bicycles. Torpado made a broad variety of bicycles for different uses (including worker, comfort, BMT, ATB, and even motorized).
Ben Lawee
[edit]Ben Lawee, born in Baghdad, Iraq, immigrated to the U.S. at age 19.[1] Lawee attended business school at Columbia University,[1] and in 1959 purchased Jones Bicycles, growing the single store into a multi-store chain.[1] He sold the retail chain in 1965 to begin importing Bianchi and Legnano bikes,[1] and became the national distributor for Raleigh and Motobécane. Lawee, who had two children, David and Monique, with his wife Ariela, died November 8, 2002.[1]
Models
[edit]Models manufactured under the Italvega marque include (in order of increasing quality):
- Viva Sport
- Nuovo Sport
- Nuovo Record
- Super Record
- Super Speciale
- Super Light
The top-end models were built with double-butted Columbus tubing and Campagnolo Record and Nuovo Record components. The low-mid level framesets have the inverted triangle Columbus foil decal, while the better models have the rectangle Columbus foil decal. The lowest models have no Columbus decal.
2017 Restart
[edit]In 2017, the brand was re-registered in the Netherlands by Nicholas Hurenkamp, who is seeking to fund a production facility in March 2018 through crowdfunding.[2] The new brand markets two models - the Super Speciale and the Nuovo Supersport, both of which are completely hand painted.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Cancer Takes Univega Founder Ben Lawee". Allbusiness.com, Bicycle Retailer, November 12, 2002.
- ^ "Bring beautiful bikes back to life". GoFundMe. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
- ^ Zijlma, Thomas (23 January 2018). "Italvega Nuovo Supersport – Review van een fiets die we liever wilden houden". Bicycling Magazine. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
External links
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Italian bicycle manufacturers | |
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