Bikes manufactured in Japan succeeded in the U.S. market until currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made them less competitive, which led companies to source bicycles from Taiwan.
Ben Lawee, who was born in Baghdad in 1926 and emigrated to the United States on a freighter in his teens.
While attending Columbia University in New York City, he worked at the bicycle shop of George Joannou, a Greek Cypriot, and subsequently moved to California as West Coast sales representative for Joannou Cycle Co. Lawee ventured out on his own in 1959 when he purchased the Jones Bicycle shop in Long Beach, California, growing a single store into a chain.
[1] He sold the chain in 1965, began importing Bianchi bicycles, and became the national distributor for Raleigh and Motobecane.
Other braze-ons were also Gipiemme, including the two styles of brake stay bridges used, depending on the model, and the induction-cast "box arch" chainstay bridge which was common to all steel Bertonis, with the exception of the TSX model – the frame of which was obviously the Daccordi Griffe, but with Bertoni inscriptions and decals.
"Second Series"(incomplete list): Italvega bikes were designed and hand-built within the noted Torresini workshop at the Torpado factory in Padua, Italy.
Torpado made a broad variety of bicycles for different uses (including worker, comfort, BMT, ATB, and even motorized) Models manufactured under the Italvega marque include (in order of increasing quality): The top-end models were built with double-butted Columbus tubing and Campagnolo Record and Nuovo Record components.