From the last unit on a secluded industrial estate in Toronto comes a myriad of beautiful and perfect paint jobs, in demand the world over.

As the name suggests, Vélocolour paints bicycles, but that would be a simplification. The work of Noah Rosen, partner Suzanne Carlsen, and additional full-time painter Elodie; encompasses restoration of vintage racing bikes through to bespoke designs and artwork. A common refrain from anyone visiting their facility is that their work should grace the walls of a gallery instead of roads or mountain trails.

Vélocolour can be found at 191 Weston Rd. occupying a former body shop, equipped with a full-size paint booth. Unlike their curious neighbors, a mix of auto garages and collision shops, Vélocolour can fit fifty projects, while the shops next door are constantly shuffling cars.

Noah Rosen started the company in 2008 after working for one of the founding fathers of the custom bike world.
“I didn’t really know anything about painting, I didn’t even know that bicycle painting was a real job at that point. I had come from an art background, having studied ceramics and sculpture but he thought I would be good at it.
He gave me the opportunity to learn how to paint. I had access to a spray booth and some rather old spray guns, it was a basic set up, over 20 years old even then. I stayed many late nights, learning how not to screw things up.”
A Best Paint win at the 2009 North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS), for his restoration of a 1951 Cinelli racing bike, put Vélocolour on the map.

“It was only the third or fourth year of the show, it really started exploding as I was getting into the business. Suddenly, I was considered one of the best painters in N. America. But it takes years to get good. I don’t think it was that good now, but the bike was interesting, and the paint was OK.”

Initially the shop leaned towards restoration but over the years they have done more design work, till where, now 75% of their jobs are custom paint on more modern steel, titanium and carbon bikes.
The team at Vélocolour has developed a unique esthetic that compliments the 4 cm diameter tube surface they have to work with.

“Suzanne and I, coming from art backgrounds have our own stylistic boundaries, years ago I said no flames, skulls, or spider webs. Our look is more illustrative, fine lines and geometric patterns. Stylistically we are very different from automotive custom painters. The stuff that works on cars or even motorcycles doesn’t translate to bicycles.”
The paint work on the frames, whether vintage steel or modern high-tech carbon is a study in precision and perfection. Custom paint jobs that have taken over thirty hours are sent back to the stripping tank if the lines in the design are not clean enough.

As Noah explains, “it is a choice we make, our customers are shipping bikes from around the world, and they expect our best work. The customer is very close to the finished product, they could be staring at the frame for a four or five hour bike ride, so there can’t be even one imperfection.”
An example of Vélocolour’s unique vision is the maple leaf themed bikes created for Canada’s mountain bike team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as well as work for the Norco factory team.
Noah has a collection of SATAminijet 4400 B guns, all HVLP technology using 1.0 and 1.2 nozzles and SATA adam 2 digital displays.

“When I started painting, I decided to buy a good gun and that was the SATAminijet, it was worth it, I used it for everything. Now we have five SATAminijets, it’s a good gun that does everything we ask of it. We also use SATA RPS, very useful and can be used for paint storage. They are amazing, they work well.”
Vélocolour uses many of the same paint materials as the automotive refinish industry, epoxy primers, water-based topcoats and low VOC clears. “They may not have been designed for painting bikes, but we have honed our procedures over time that allow us to create beautiful paint jobs that will last for years in a real world cycling environment.”
One area where they do deviate from typical automotive applications is the use of a very hard Imron clear coat. Hard to polish but chip resistant, the clear coat also prevents impressions from bubble wrap when bike frames are packaged up for weeks at a time and shipped to customers in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Asia and even Australia.
The average price for a Vélocolour paint job is between $1,800 to 2,600, depending on the number of colours, graphics and details. More complex custom jobs can cost up to $5,000.

“The whole bike industry, has exploded, people are prepared to spend a lot more on their bikes. Some of the frames we paint are part of high-end race builds that might be $40,000 when they are complete.”
The shop has a six month wait list; the team is dedicated to getting customers projects done on a tight schedule.