<<"According to his daughter Yvonne he started in the early 70's? with the Aquila house brand name, Yvonne couldn't recall an exact date.? The Aquila frames were built in France at the Gitane factory,? same thing with the Flying Dutchman frames Jack later brought into the US,? they too were made in France at the same factory." >>
Hmm.??I think things got confused in the word-of-mouth repeating of that story.
I bought and sold a number of those bikes. ("Aquila", "Flying Dutchman") and that talk is about Jack Van Gent (now defunct Big Wheel Bicycles in Denver) and his daughter Yvonne Van Gent... Jack's house brand Flying Dutchman frames were at least in part made by Aquila in Italy. I don't think nor believe Gitane had any hand in them. He also sold the Libertas brand which I assumed were Dutch or Belgian.
Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina USA
-----Original Message----- From: verktyg@aol.com To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Mon, Aug 3, 2009 5:38 pm Subject: [CR] Aquila and Flying Dutchman frames from The Big Wheel in Denver
I found this comment in a Bikeforums.net thread from 2006 in reference to Flying Dutchman bikes:? ?
"According to his daughter Yvonne he started in the early 70's?
with the Aquila house brand name, Yvonne couldn't recall an exact date.?
The Aquila frames were built in France at the Gitane factory,?
same thing with the Flying Dutchman frames Jack later brought into the US,?
they too were made in France at the same factory."? ?
Gitane made Royal Asport and a few other brands of bikes but is anyone aware of an Aquila or Flying Dutchman connection to Gitane?? ?
Chas. Colerich?
Oakland, CA USA? ?
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