Italvega
Italvega is a brand of road bicycles designed, specified, imported and marketed by the California-based bicycle distributor, Lawee, Inc., founded by Ben Lawee, who also created the Univega and Bertoni bicycle brands.
Italvega bikes were designed and hand-built within the noted Torresini workshop at the Torpado factory in Padua, Italy. They were built beginning in 1970 and continuing through the mid- to late-1970s before manufacturing was moved to Japan under the name Univega. All Italvega bicycles were made in the Torpado factory, but not all were high-end bicycles. Torpado made a broad variety of bicycles for different uses.
Ben Lawee
Ben Lawee, born in Baghdad, Iraq, immigrated to the U.S. at age 19. Lawee attended business school at Columbia University, and in 1959 purchased Jones Bicycles, growing the single store into a multi-store chain. He sold the retail chain in 1965 to begin importing Bianchi and Legnano bikes, and became the national distributor for Raleigh and Motobécane. Lawee, who had two children, David and Monique, with his wife Ariela, died November 8, 2002.Models
Models manufactured under the Italvega marque include :- Viva Sport
- Nuovo Sport
- Nuovo Record
- Super Record
- Super Speciale
- Super Light