Classic Benotto Bicycle with Campagnolo Athena

Classic Benotto Bicycle with Campagnolo Athena

This is a really nice Benotto bicycle from Mexico from the late 80s (approximately from 1989). The frame and fork are made of light and durable Mannesmann Oria steel tubes and have lots of chrome, lovelly details and Benotto pantographs.

This classic bicycle is equipped with genuine Campagnolo Athena parts.

The classic Italian bicycle brand Benotto was founded just the same way as the other Italian brands: by a passionate racer, this one named Giacinto Benotto.

That happened in Torino, Italy in 1931 when Benotto was 24. Together with his brother, Benotto did a lot on research and developed racing bicycles for the future. Early in 1948, though, the story of this brand takes a strange turn: reading in the paper about the new-found oil in Venezuela, Benotto eagers to go there to put up a branch of his classic bicycle brand. In the middle of 1948 they reach the port La Guaira, with 200 shining Benottos. Going through customs, Benotto explains his idea about making Latin Americans ride bikes, but he got laughed of and they replied ‘here in Venezuela we don’t bike, we drive Cadillac’s.’ He was a successful bicycle pioneer, though, and Benotto made the first Venezuelan fold-bike, the first tandem, and a five person bicycle that got famous on TV. Another Benotto family member, Felice, engages himself in the racing scene in Venezuela, and manages to get a team to Mexico in October 1950. In 1953 some part of the production of classic Benotto bicycles moves to Mexico City, but the Italian production remains until 83/84.

Benotto bicycles have won the world championships 11 times, the most noticeable with Franscesco Moser in San Cristobal, Venezuela in 1977. Ole Ritter made an hour record on a vintage Benotto bicycle in 1968, 48, 653 km, in Mexico City.