Perfect Imperfections: Van Gogh of Cycling

by Pedal Pedlar November 09, 2014

Finishing a bicycle frame is no doubt an art, and we have great admiration for flawless paint, highly polished chrome and perfectly applied transfers. Sometimes though, it's inspiring to see a much more expressive approach to the finish. Such as that of the infamous Dutch marque, Remy Ossendrecht. Remy was the brand of René Wouters, the name formed from the first two letters of his name, followed by the first and last letters of his wife's name, Mary. Name amalgamations seemed to be the fashion in the Netherlands (Germi, Wimath and more famously, Koga).

The very best Remy's were built by master frame builder Marten Van Den Bergh, a truly exceptional and very well respected builder who single handedly built some of the finest frames ever to have come out of The Netherlands.

It may seem sacrilegious for such finely crafted frames not to have a 'perfect' paint job, but to some you could argue that the hand-painted finish of some of the earlier Remys were indeed perfect. We certainly would argue that, and this Remy Special Course is a fine example of how amazing it is to see such art in the flesh. We've only ever had one hand-painted Remy before, and it wasn't a Van Den Bergh built one. This one however is a pro-level Reynolds 531 Remy, it's wonderfully light and the hand-painted decals are just insane. It even bears the riders name (J Van Der Toorn), and speaking of finishing, it boasts a complete 1975 Campagnolo Nuovo Record groupset.

This really is an incredibly rare bike, and it really does ride like a pro machine.

Check out the examples of wonderful hand-painted decals below, and see the full spec & more photos here.

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