Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

Tommasini Strada

Tommasini Strada

Simon Rich recently sent through some photos of his Tommasini Strada that had been built up with the usual level of perfection by Melbourne’s Dan Hale of Shifterbikes. He mentioned how he struggled to capture the eyeball-searing florescence of the paint scheme typical of Italian steeds from that era. He was rapidly dispatched to Andy Rogers, a Melbourne photographer who has shot a couple of bikes for The Spoken previously, the most recent being a Hillman Pista. Needless to say, Andy did a fantastic job of capturing the paint as closely as is photographically possible.

Simon tells the story: “Introducing my Tommasini. There’s no denying, the moment I saw this frame I knew it was going to be mine. I showed my mates and promptly told them they needed their sunglasses. This thing is bright and I’ve still been unable to capture the florescence of the pink in a photo. The frame had a few battle scars, and I’m sure the original owner had stories to match, so I was always intending on building a rider as apposed to a hanger. Parts came from here, there and everywhere but essentially this is a modern build. Reliability was key but there had to be a common theme. Everything but the frame would be black and this only increased the volume of the color. It screams to the top of any mountain it’s pointed towards and it ain’t nervous on the descents, either.”

Special thanks to both Simon Rich and Andy Rogers, you can see more of Andy’s stellar photography on his website, Fame & Spear.

Tommasini Strada
Tommasini Strada
Tommasini Strada
Tommasini Strada
Tommasini Strada
Tommasini Strada
Tommasini Strada