Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

Division 1 Cinelli Vigorelli

Division 1 Red Hook Crit Cinelli Vigorelli

John ‘Prolly’ Watson’s reference to the pink-themed Cinelli Vigorelli by Austin’s Division 1 bicycle shop as “a racing machine found in F1 or Nascar” was an appropriate justification for such a striking theme. The Texan shop built up three of these amazing machines to compete in David Trimble’s highly visible Red Hook Criterium.

The reaction, upon encountering these bikes for the first time, is one of shock, amazement and amusement. And that’s exactly the effect John Dalton, the owner of Division 1, desired. The Red Hook Crit is 26 hot laps around a tight circuit—each one broadcasted around the world via the fans of the race and social media. Adrian Flores of Division 1 breaks it down for for us.

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“John Dalton, the owner of this bike shop, is the designer for the whole project and the shop. The model on Prolly’s blog is one of three race bikes with identical builds. We started with the 2013 Cinelli Vigorelli as the canvas and built the track bike around that. After attending the first Red Hook at the cruise terminal as a team and seeing the hype surrounding the event and meeting Antonio Colombo, we knew we wanted to come back for the second Red Hook and make a splash.

Division 1 Red Hook Crit Cinelli Vigorelli

“We went with Thomson stems, handlebars and Masterpiece posts and clamps, Paul Components Royal Flush cranks were chosen and custom Phil Wood high-flange track hubs were selected as well. We wanted all the components to match so in our search for the right pink anodized finish, we approached Leroy and Garrett at Phil Works. They took our 150 pieces of aluminum, including K-Edge Go-Pro mounts for the front and rear to anodize.

Division 1 Red Hook Crit Cinelli Vigorelli

“The carbon rims were painted at Austin Paint Works to resemble the Cinelli C logo in pink with a white patch to include a reflective Division 1 sticker. They also painted the Thomson carbon bars to match the gray base of the Cinelli frame. Mick Peel at Busyman Bicycles created white tape with green under the perforation and red stitching. The Fi’zi:k Arione saddles were covered with white leather, the D1 logo was under layered with green under the D and red under the 1 rounding out the Italian theme.

Division 1 Red Hook Crit Cinelli Vigorelli

“Additionally, we built a fourth bike in a sort of ‘fixie / townie’ style, with custom riser bars built from a 90mm Thomson stem cut and welded to a pair of Cinelli Pepper riser bars—also anodized pink. The front of these handlebars were painted pink and wrapped with Mick Peel’s bar tape and a Fi’zi:k Ares saddle wrapped identically to the race bikes. He also made some white leather toe straps with Velcro and buckle attachment, mounted to pink anodized White Industry pedals.

Division 1 Red Hook Crit Cinelli Vigorelli

Adrian continues: “I believe all this is a pre-cursor to the mission of the bike shop. We don’t simply want to excel at being an awesome local bike shop. We want to become a destination in the industry. We have over 75 years of experience between our mechanics, sales floor and our Master Fit studio, starting with Crash Desario (builder of our three race bikes), Christian Hartwig (AKA Chicken), and our Master-Fitter and salesman Russell LaFleur.

Division 1 Red Hook Crit Cinelli Vigorelli

“Dalton designed every inch of our bike shop. The west wall of the shop is built like a velodrome with true banked walls hitting the floor all the way to the ceiling. The regulation velodrome stripes and the use of the SkateLite throughout the store accentuate the Division 1 theme. Like many genres of this great sport, Division 1 is one of the most experienced and coveted categories across the sport and Dalton felt the need for this in one of the most competitive cycling markets in the States.”

Fast bike. Fast color. Fast shop. What do you think? The pink themed bikes are certainly appropriate to the event. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with next. Special thanks to John Watson for the excellent photography, head to his blog, Prolly Is Not Probably, for the full set. If you’re passing through Austin, drop in and say g’day (or howdy) to Adrian and John Dalton at Division 1—even just to check out the incredible Merckx-inspired mural by David Flores on the outside of the shop.

Division 1 Red Hook Crit Cinelli Vigorelli