Bjerager

In Denmark Banani is a true legend. Great handbuilded frames used by legendary riders like Freddy Maertens and Danny Clarke. But was it ever exported and sold anywhere else in the world? Jus recently aquired this 1984 model. Originally full campagnolo record, but sometime in the past rebuild with Dura Ace rear derailleur, brakes, wheels and crankset. Suntour siperbe pedals.Very ince ride, Columbus SL tubing.

Here is a translation of an article from 2013 when the shop sadly closed:

"Back then, there were real breasts. Now, it's all plastic," says Sverre Nielsen, also known as "Lillebror" (Little Brother), a lean 65-year-old man, nodding towards the folding bike girls at the bicycle workshop. Some of the girls have been hanging around since the 1970s and 1980s. Lillebror speaks in the same understated tone when discussing the current cycling trends: "Oh, you shouldn't compromise on equipment. Bikes have become fashion and status symbols," he responds, adding, "instead of getting some kilometers under your belt."

Lillebror and his sister, Tulle, who is three years older, affectionately call their customers "dear" and prefer to crack one joke too many rather than too few. They have been running Banani Cykler on Vigerslevvej in Valby since their father passed away in 2010. In cycling circles, their father is known as the speedy road racer and later one of the world's best bike builders, "Bananen" (The Banana).

Very few people call him Bendt A. Nielsen. "Bananen" and "Lillebror" used to build steel bikes that top professional riders from all over Europe came to have made in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. For instance, the former road world champion, Belgian Freddy Maertens, and Hans-Henrik Ørsted rode on Banani's hand-built frames. For many years, only a few six-day racers did not ride on one of Banani's exceptionally stiff steel frames. Until carbon fiber, mass production, and streamlined bicycle marketing in seasonal colors took over, Banani's bikes were among the most sought-after in the cycling world.
In Denmark, Schrøder and Saxil unsuccessfully attempted to achieve the same recognition. Today, the legendary bicycle shop from 1953 has been devoured by a hectic peloton of designers, new technology, and large-scale production. And it's the end of an era. Lillebror is retiring, and the property has been sold to a real estate company. The prospectus lies neglected on a shelf in the back room. By the way, it will be 49 years since Lillebror started his apprenticeship as a bike mechanic under his father, Bananen, on August 1st.

An end to a piece of Copenhagen's cycling history comes today, Wednesday, at 5:30 pm, when Lillebror and Tulle lock up for the last time. Friends and loyal customers help out in the final days, throwing out and sorting the enormous stock of spare parts, always able to supply that one bicycle component no one else in the cycling universe had. Lillebror points to his heart under his green T-shirt, saying, "That kind of thing hits you right here. The downfall will probably come in a few days."

The atmosphere is solemn and focused, as if at a funeral. The closure of Banani is a fact. Items are thrown away, put on sale, and occasionally someone calls through the cramped warehouse, "Lillebror, should this fork be thrown away or...?"

At 10 am, there's coffee as always, and the sugar is stirred with a Campagnolo 15 pedal arm wrench.

Throughout the morning, Lillebror and Tulle serve their customers with melancholic professionalism, tidying up whenever there's a break. It's a fact: their lives and upbringing among bicycle parts, cycling stars, and bike-related conversations with a host of loyal customers, as well as their high status in the cycling world, are now forever archived on the shelf of memories. Next to the now-empty drawers and boxes containing brake arms, grip springs, ball bearings, chainrings, stems, bolts, and nuts.

As children, the siblings used to fit spokes to wheels in the kitchen and make leather bicycle helmets on the dining table while their mother cooked. Today, Tulle knows more about bicycles than any other woman in this part of the gender equality debate. She says there's so much she could tell and gets teary-eyed, saying, "I feel like hell. I've been sleeping and crying all weekend. It's so many years... I'll especially miss the customers and their children. On the other hand, maybe my legs will feel better when we're done."

For the golden generation, Banani had great significance. A customer and his wife pop in with a bottle of red wine and say, "Thank you for all the years." Shortly after, another customer drops by and asks, "How's retirement treating you?" Later, a man comes with an original repainted bike from 1959, which Bananen assembled in the year of the Lord 1959.

When former cycling star Ole Ritter, who turned professional in Italy in 1967, thinks about Lillebror and Bananen's legendary bicycles, he says, "Banani has meant a lot to all of us. Especially to the young riders out at Ordrupbanen. And to bike building. The Italian track bikes weren't stiff enough, so I had to do what other professionals like Danny Clark, Don Allan, and many others did: get my frames custom-built by Bananen and then paint them. I don't know what it was exactly that he could do. Some people are just more talented."

Jesper Worre, a former professional cyclist in the 1980s, lived just around the corner from Banani Cykler and often visited the shop, being part of the cycling community on Vigerslevvej. Today, he is the race director for Post Danmark Rundt:

"It was Bendt (Bananen) who advised me when I was a boy. His and Lillebror's influence on the cycling world cannot be underestimated. It's sad that they are closing. It was a unique shop."

Banani will be remembered not only for its unique frames from the "world's smallest bicycle factory on ten square meters," as Lillebror calls it, but also for the atmosphere in the shop under their father's leadership. As former professional cyclist and sports director for Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Brian Holm, recalls on the cycling website -R&c[0]=AT3sSB1fiqmpxrbieV6Tnu--hFCHG_P0Yl04WzNZOoTvcZ2g4Lxa8yRKhGfKDazJIDM-rVyGKvmN91ij4ICzsR2KOiw9QTtjsiPY-FHVblILpg83wNBuVS7EFfIGOXJy-mKwvi3kDUcYP3AptNrvwPEVmX2Usivy_ksmIJ2CXdFpM3Z9-aTBSSVa7JJWmpDkxVUKW0J3YOC92qu5LGCOdqU]www.feltet.dk: "He threw a customer out of the shop who had asked for a lock for his new bike: 'Get out of my shop if you need a lock for the bike. A Banani is never left alone or outside at night.'"

Lillebror helps the man with the Banani bike from 1959. A new ball bearing for the front fork? He tightens it with a tool that probably has a name. Voilà. "How did you do that?" asks the customer. "Hocus pocus. The magic dust," Lillebror smiles.





Stiff and smooth ride




Dura Ace 25 years jubilee model



Unfortunately the original frontt wheel is missing, så the previous owner replaced it with this one with a Sugino hub.

Dura Ace 25 years jubilee model rear hub.

repechage

Surprised Baron Corpuz was not loading up the stock to resell later.
nice post.

way back, a “Banani” patent leather hairnet helmet was what the cool kids wore. Impossible to find without a connection and a phone call to advise they arrived.
I settled for a decent knock off. Better than the Lambertini or Cinelli.
no idea if they helmets were connected to a shop. They were high style. Way before the Bell Biker.

BTinNYC 

Great looking bike!

unworthy1

and a great story (albeit with a sad ending)...thanks for sharing it!

P!N20

Nice to learn about Banani and the link to Danny Clark - he was originally from Tasmania, like me!

I really hope that crack in the seat clamp lobe is just the paint:

Bjerager

Thanks - its just the paint.

Bjerager

They were - "Bananis" kids were sitting at home in the evening at the kitchen table making the helmets with their mom before they became old enough to go and work in the shop. And the youngest son was later to become frame builder in the shop - and propably one of the best in the world at building frames. Especially when it comes to building frames for riding tracks.