Velouria

• The Velouria frame & fork – made in Italy, shipped from Germany for assembly at your local bicycle shop
• A second box is an option, with all the components used in Bella Ciao bicycles
• A third box comes from Bafang, with the BBS01 ebike kit that has been tested on the Velouria for 9 years
• Or, if you come to Berlin, you can collect your ready-to-ride Velouria and explore 

The Frame and Fork

The Velcouria frame and fork is not a collection of independent dimensions, but a complete geometry system in which each parameter works with the others. The critical variables were carefully specified:

• Effective top tube
• Chainstay
• Wheelbase
• Fork rake
• Trail
• Head tube angle

The bicycle design was approached as a dynamic system rather than a set of fashionable numbers. Modern frame design often treats geometry variables independently, adjusting one dimension without fully accounting for its effect on the others. Velouria began with the desired riding behaviour, specifying the geometry accordingly.

The original brief called for 15 variations, with different rider sizes, different wheel sizes and both a Diamante (traditionally men’s) and Frascona (traditionally women’s) frame shape. But after the Frascona frame was made, it became clear it was superior to the traditional high-bar double triangle design. The diamante frame was dropped, with only the 700C wheel size, for three frames: small, medium and large.

The Frascona Curve

The Frascona curve is an elegant bend of steel tubing that plays an important structural role in the frame. In a conventional step-through bicycle the structural load path between the head tube and the bottom bracket is interrupted. Forces must travel through several joints and smaller members before reaching the drivetrain area. This indirect path introduces torsional flex and reduces steering precision.

The Frascona curve instead carries that load through a single continuous structural member. The curve creates a direct path between the head tube and the bottom bracket, allowing the primary forces of steering and pedalling to travel through one uninterrupted tube.

As a result the step-through frame becomes significantly stiffer under steering and pedalling loads while retaining the accessibility of a low frame. In other words, the Frascona curve addresses the traditional weakness of the step-through design rather than merely disguising it

This is not a “women’s bicycle.” It is a more human-scaled design that benefits riders of any gender. The curve itself is also a rare craft. Forming it requires a specialised bending tool and the experience to use it correctly in frame building.

Historically, the drop frame was introduced to accommodate riders wearing skirts. The Frascona curve, however, provides advantages that go beyond that original purpose. In city riding one frequently arrives at an intersection where the signal is red but pedestrians are crossing. Riding through the crossing may be unsafe or illegal. The low frame allows the rider to step off quickly, sometimes keeping one foot on a pedal and walking the bicycle through the crossing, then remounting smoothly once clear.

The curve also lies close to the natural balance point of the bicycle, making it comfortable to lift when carrying the bike up stairs.

Within the world that grew around the Lovely Bicycle movement, the curve represents more than practicality. It is graceful and distinctive, a visible piece of frame building artistry. On the Velouria it becomes both a structural solution and a visual signature.

The Frascona curve is exactly the sort of detail that belongs on a bicycle built by a small European workshop rather than a mass manufacturer.

geometry

The Velouria is a modern low-trail roadster built around 700C wheels in a steel step-through frame. Very few builders have attempted such a combination, and mostly only by bespoke artisans who charge thousands.

In character the Velouria combines the stability and comfort of the classic 1920’s Raleigh DL-1 roadster with the modern materials of an Italian comfort road bike, known for its light and precise steering.

• The shallow head angle combined with the 70 mm fork rake produces a trail figure that gives a stable and predictable ride.
• The rear geometry is longer than most modern bicycles. This improved ride smoothness, load carrying stability, and overall directional security.
• The seat tube angle placed the rider slightly further back over the rear wheel. This shifts weight off the hands and onto the saddle, producing the relaxed posture and comfort that riders immediately notice.
• The hi-tensile steel in the fork absorbs shock through its natural flex, achieving with a single piece of steel what modern suspension systems attempt with springs, seals, and linkages.

 

A comfortable frame & FOrk

In 2009, a woman in Boston came across a lovely Dutch bicycle chained to a parking meter, and a whole new world opened up. She started a blog, Lovely Bicycle and wrote about rediscovering the bicycle as something graceful, comfortable, and part of daily life.

It seemed impossible to simply buy an attractive, comfortable bicycle and ride it.                          Lovely Bicycle Blog 4 April 2009

By 2017, she was winding down the blog, and Slowcycles decided to reach out to her to ask one final thought from the expertise she had developed over eight years of exploring the world of lovely bicycles.

If she could design the ideal bicycle frame and fork that met her criteria – attractive and comfortable, what would it be? 

From that came the Velouria. Slowcycles commissioned the geometry and fabrication specifications and had a prototype made by Bella Ciao’s small artisan frame makers in Italy.

But there was a problem. While DHL offered global shipping of such a frame for €100 from Germany, from Italy it was over €3,000. So the plan was shelved, until 2026, when Slowcycles offered the plans and business plan to Bella Ciao. Based in Berlin, they could offer the DIY frame & folk kit worldwide, and add it to their product line as a blend of old and new. The comfort of the classic roadster, and the modern, light design of the urban Italian bicycle.

The eBike Kit

The eBike kit can fit on any Bella Ciao bicycle, but it is ideal for a bike made for city and country road riding in hill country. The Bafang BBS01 has been tested on Bella Ciao bicycles since the motor kit first came out in 2014. The Velouria runs a 250W  36V motor that takes 10° hills in second gear. Another one of the Slowcycles fleet has run a 750W 52V motor for a decade with no damage to the frame, chain or gears.

Before ebikes Auckland New Zealand was a bicycle desert except for, in the words of the first Lovely Bicycle post: “hunched-over postures,  blotchy, sweat-stained faces communicating a curious combination of misery and self-righteousness, commitment to a wardrobe of lycra or t-shirts with anti-car slogans, and constant risk of collisions with motor vehicle.

That changed with the introduction of the ebike kit.

In 2013, Slowcycles visited the Banfang factory in Suzhou China, where they were invited to test the very first prototype of the BBS01 midmount motor. It was a revolutionary improvement over the hub motors: quiet, fast, with an internal controller and it drove the gears in the same way a car motor uses a transmission to maximise its power curve.

Three months later Slowcycles was provided the 17th prototype to test in Auckland for six months. At the end of that test, Slowcycles put together a buying group where 27 motor kits were purchased and installed by their owners on a wide range of bicycles. It changed New Zealand cycling.

As intended, local bicycle dealers suddenly saw motor-driven bicycles all over Waiheke Island, and they reached out to import them.