[CR] Van Looy Masi/Gazelle

(Example: Framebuilding:Tubing:Falck)

Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:16:18 +0200
From: "Freek Faro" <khun.freek@gmail.com>
To: "Scott L. Minneman" <minneman@onomy.com>
Cc: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR] Van Looy Masi/Gazelle


Very interesting bike, which of course reminded me immediately of my own 'Masi that wants to be a Gazelle'. Although that one is a far cry from this beautiful and understated racing machine.

A couple of years ago I listened to a radio documentary about the Gazelle factory, its history and its important role in the social fabric so to speak of the community where the factory is, the small town of Dieren. Mr. Wim Breukink, former executive director (or more plainly 'directeur') of the Gazelle factory, was interviewed. Mr. Breukink is the father of Erik Breukink, pro-rider and now one of the team managers of the Rabo team. Mr. Breukink spoke about the time in the 60s that he thought it was necessary to change the image of Gazelle in the marketplace, which was sofar synonimous with high quality, but also considered boring. Thats why Gazelle started a race team in the mid 60s, and attracted some well-known names to the team. Willem-II Gazelle in 1966 was the first team. Rik van Looy came to the team in 1967. At that time Gazelle must have started to build their own racing frames, so its interesting to find out f.i. where they got the knowledge (from Masi? I don't think so, very different ideas about geometry). That Rik van Looy had his frame built by Masi is not so surprising, he was a big name and must have had his priviliges, or maybe Gazelle themselves were not yet up to the task. He rode for Superia and Flandria before Gazelle, so who knows who built his Superia and Flandria frames ...

In the list of names for the 66 and 67 Willem II-Gazelle teams I found a name of someone I know, at least used to know, so maybe I can find him again and put this question to him.

Freek Faro Rotterdam Netherlands

2009/9/30 Scott L. Minneman <minneman@onomy.com>
> Does anybody know a source (other than buying this bike for EUR 5000 (which
> would be nice, if I had the money (and if it were even vaguely my size)))
> for the frame protector things in the third and eleventh pictures of this
> auction? .the ones that are keeping the bar-end shifter cables from doing
> a
> number on the head tube lugs?
>
>
>
> In any case, an interesting bike with an interesting story.
>
>
>
>
> http://cgi.ebay.it/Masi-Gazelle-Rik-Van-Looy-vintage-racing-bike_W0QQitemZ19
> 0338274028
>
>
>
> http://bit.ly/Km3vJ
>
>
>
> .but I want a handful of those little rubber things!
>
>
>
> Scott Minneman
>
> San Francisco, CA USA