Bruinewoud 1979

This Bruinewoud, is perhaps the rarest but are also the least valuable bike that I have in my collection. Its is very dear to me because it's from my hometown Nijmegen. That's where Piet Bruinewoud was located with his bicycle business in 1971. He specialized in making custom racing bikes which he build  himself.

The bikes are of the A.B.N. brand. (Alex Bruinewoud Nijmegen). Alexander Bruinewoud (born in 1902) was Piet's father. Alexander Bruinewoud came to Nijmegen in 1920 and started working in a starch factory. In his spare time he constructed bicycles from individual parts and sold them through a lottery to his colleagues in the factory. In 1927 he started selling bicycles under the brand name A.B.N. 

Piet decided to start building his own racing bikes, because Gazelle refused him the dealership. The Bruinewoud bicycles became well known in nijmegen and  its surroundings, especially the members of the local cycling club "Licht Verzet" participated on their Bruinewoud's in various crits throughout the Netherlands. 

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Somewhere in the 80's even a local crit was organized in Nijmegen East, where the Bruinewouds were built. The organization was in the hands of the cycling association Groenewoud and Piet and Jos (from the cafe of the same name) acted as sponsors. Until at a certain point his riders started to show professional cures and the were more interested in making money then racing a bike. Piet was rather annoyed by that mentality; for him the fun was gone. Another reason that at one point in time there were no more Bruinewoud bicycles visible in Nijmegen may have to do with the limited number of colors available. There were only two colors available: blue or dark brown.