Monday, June 6, 2011

Classic Bike Rally

Victoria had one of it's first vintage bike shows as part of the Victoria International Cycling Festival this June 5th, 2011.

The event was a success in my opinion. Held on the lawn at the Empress hotel it was rather small but saw a few classic bike buffs come out to show their collections and talk bikes. There were bikes from the personal collections of several Victoria shop owners and employees. The event was organized by Tim Unger of Fairfield who moved bike for several others. Thanks Tim. There were many beautiful bikes, but the highlight was "Torchy" Peden's CCM flyer recently restored and currently residing at the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. Some other highlights for me included an early Marinoni road bike with the Fleur De Lis cutouts probably dating to 1976/77, a probably late 1950s or early 1960s Bianchi, Claude Criquielion's Hitachi team bike on which he crashed with Steve Bauer at the 1988 world championships (an all Mavic equipped Eddy Merckx), and an all Zeus equipped, Zeus track bike. 
















Time hopes to organize a regular meeting for fans of vintage bikes and build a better community amongst us. I look forward to being able to ride some of my bikes with other enthusiasts.


-VBN