There’s nothing better than buying a new racing bike. But even though cycling has become a high-tech paradise, a new bike doesn’t have to mean the lightest, most up-to-date carbon speed monster. As it happens, the market for vintage racing bikes has never been so buoyant. Let us introduce you Damskø: an Amsterdam-based company breathing new life into fine vintage wheels of steel.
Passion as a starting point
It all started when the company’s founders, three bike freaks, rode from Amsterdam to Copenhagen in 2014 on vintage bikes they had restored themselves. Once in the Danish capital, they were surprised by the number of compliments they received from strangers, some of whom offered decent sums of money to take the bikes off their hands.
The cycling-obsessed trio immediately spotted a chance to make cash while still following their passion. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Mixed, city and racing bikes
There are old racing bikes literally everywhere you go in the Netherlands. Damskø’s restorers mainly source their secondhand bikes, frames and parts from nearby. Once the bikes arrive in the workshop the frames are stripped down, carefully checked, cleaned up and resprayed.
The frames are then built back up again into classy whole bikes, with a careful selection of suitable vintage parts and spanking new cable sets, handlebar tape and tyres. These machines are head-turners for cycle-crazed connoisseurs.
Despite the fact that it takes quite a bit of hard graft to restore these machines to a street-ready state, Damskø have a wide range of machines in stock. They have three categories of machine: “city”, “mixed” (these have a sloping top tube) and “race”. They also have a decent stock of frame sizes for tall and small alike.
Danish service bonus
There is a major advantage if you just happen to live in Copenhagen, Århus, Malmö, Stockholm or Oslo, and you want to buy a Damskø bike. The company has a set up number of deals with local bike shops that have agreed to service these vintage machines. And should you order a machine by parcel post from Amsterdam, these shops will also assemble the bikes for you.
If you are not happy with your machine once you get it, there’s a two-week window during which you may return it and get your money back. Also, every part of these rolling pieces of history carries a three-month guarantee. Looking for a new city bike, something classy, and perhaps out of the ordinary? You can order your own vintage bicycle here. And even if you’re not planning to buy, you just might want to have a look anyway.