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 Italvega logo head badge | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Bicycle production |
| Founded | 1970; 55 years ago (1970) |
| Founder | Ben Lawee |
| Defunct | 1977; 48 years ago (1977), restart 2016; 9 years ago (2016) |
| Fate | Production moved to Japan under new name |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | World |
| Products |
|
| Owner | Nicholas Hurenkamp |
Italvega is a brand ofroad bicycles designed, specified, imported and marketed by theCalifornia-based bicycle distributor, Lawee, Inc., founded by Ben Lawee, who also created theUnivega and Bertoni bicycle brands.
Italvega bikes were designed and hand-built within the noted Torresini workshop at theTorpado factory inPadua,Italy. They were built beginning in 1970 and continuing through the mid- to late-1970s before manufacturing was moved toJapan 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, born inBaghdad, Iraq, immigrated to the U.S. at age 19.[1] Lawee attended business school atColumbia 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 importingBianchi andLegnano bikes,[1] and became the national distributor forRaleigh andMotobécane. Lawee, who had two children, David and Monique, with his wife Ariela, died November 8, 2002.[1]
Models manufactured under the Italvega marque include (in order of increasing quality):
The top-end models were built with double-buttedColumbus tubing andCampagnolo 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.
In 2017, the brand was re-registered in the Netherlands by Nicholas Hurenkamp, who is seeking to fund a production facility in March 2018 throughcrowdfunding.[2] The new brand markets two models - theSuper Speciale and theNuovo Supersport, both of which are completely hand painted.[3]
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