Stolen Alert
“Ryski’s pinto, ex philly messenger, stolen recently….”
Keep an eye out world.
I didn’t really know anything about Pintos. From what I can see Mel Pinto, who was the chief importer for Gitane, rebranded some bikes with his name on them.
“Mel Pinto Imports (MPI) was created in 1958 by Mr. Mel Pinto, and incorporated in Falls Church, Virginia in the late 60’s. Mr. Pinto, a native of Morocco, has always been passionate about bicycles and bicycle racing, and created MPI to help introduce the US audience to European bicycles and bicycle racing. He organized his first race in Washington DC in 1963, that race going on to become the National Capital Open, which ran continuously until the late 80’s. During the early 70’s, MPI was the largest importer of Gitane bicycles in the US. Mr. Pinto searched out the highest quality racing and touring components of the day, offering those to a dealer network that stretched across the continent.”
According to this message board a Pinto track bike is a Urago.
“Founded by Dominique Urago in 1935 and operated as a bicycle supplier until sometime in the 1980s. With brothers Joseph and Francois (a track racer, w/championships from early 1920s -1930s and whose likeness is on head badge) Urago were famous for the quality of their handmade frames.”
From Classic Rendezvous of course…
Great head badge!
