In a garage in Melbourne, a restoration project was taking shape. For 14 months, Finn Nation had been meticulously sourcing parts, coordinating with craftsmen, and piecing together what would become more than just a bicycle – it would become a physical embodiment of a decades-long friendship.
The recipient would be cycling commentator Matt Keenan, known to many simply as "Keeno," but to his closest friends as "K-man." The bike would be a 1990s Colnago Tecnos, built to exactly match the specifications of the Buckler professional cycling team – a team that had captured Keenan's imagination during his formative years in the sport. For those of you not familiar, Team Visma-Lease a Bike traces its lineage back more than 30 years to what was then known as Buckler-Colnago-Decca.
This Colnago Tecnos wasn't just any birthday present. It was part of a tradition that had been building among a tight-knit group of Melbourne cyclists who had known each other for over 35 years.
The tradition began with a bike built for their friend Mick, nicknamed "The Freak," who had his prized Pinarello stolen from his car during his university days. "He poured all his money into this beautiful Pinarello that had first-generation STI levers on it," recalls Nation. "He was the first guy in our group to have STI levers. And then he left that in the back of his Mitsubishi Sigma at his parents' place, and it was about three weeks old, and the bike got stolen."
Later in life Mick would work his way up to become the CEO of cosmetics brand Aesop, and the group of friends asked themselves, “What do you buy for the man who has everything for his 50th?" A restored replica of that stolen Pinarello was the answer.
That first build sparked something special. Since then, the friendship group has created several masterpiece rebuilds for milestone birthdays, each one telling its own story.
But Keenan's build would be different. This would be the first one built entirely from scratch, starting with a frame sourced from vintage bikes specialist Arthur van Royge in Holland.
"This one started about 14 months out," Nation explains. "The frame is an ex-Rabobank team frame, ridden by ex-pro Danny van Elven. It was a bit sacrilegious to strip down the Rabobank original team paint to turn it into a bike that was the team prior to Rabobank."
The attention to detail in the build is extraordinary, driven by Nation's commitment to historical accuracy. "The front wheel is 28 spokes, the back wheel is 32 spokes," he says. "The front wheel is two-cross lacing; on the back wheel the drive side is three-cross lacing, and the non-drive side is two-cross lacing. That is peak attention, exactly the way the team would have ridden it."
The groupset is the rare Suntour Superbe Pro, which Nation describes with admiration: "It was all beautiful – it functioned better than just about anything going. The indexing on the shifting was perfect. All the springs in the [brake] calipers are all internal. It's all neat and tidy. They were the first ones to do internal springs on the calipers."
The build reflects not just technical accuracy but personal history. As a teenager, Keenan had identified strongly with Dutch climbers, particularly finding inspiration in riders like Steven Rooks and Gert-Jan Theunisse. "When you're a 15-16 year old kid falling in love with the sport, you look to something that is similar to yourself," Keenan explains. "There weren't that many guys that were tall and skinny in pro cycling, so I found them more relatable." In particular, Steven Rooks’ team-issue Buckler Colnago had been Keenan's dream bike throughout the years.
The search for parts became a global treasure hunt. "The seatpost was from the States," Nation recalls. "The wheels aren't period-correct, but they're brand new H Plus Son rims." Even the Time Criterium pedals required special attention: "They were Time pedals, but they were painted with Suntour logos on the back."
The result is more art piece than bicycle. Keenan hasn't ridden it yet, admitting he's "afraid to." When asked about the frame size, which appears slightly large by modern standards (it has a 58 cm top tube), Keenan explains, "From that generation, that's the size that you would have ridden. The frames are more compact the way bikes are built today, but that's the frame size I would have ridden in the early 1990s." This style of frame had been preferred by famous Swiss cycling champion Urs Freuler and has been dubbed the 'Freuler Geometry.'
The restoration expertise of Chris Howard at Cyclo Retro and the paintwork mastery of Steve Munyard from Sun Graphics were essential to bringing this vision to life.
The impact of these birthday builds extends beyond the recipients. "I've posted pictures of some of the bikes on various groups," Nation says, "especially my one on a Colnago owners' Facebook page, and told them the backstory, and they said, 'I want your friends!'"
Keenan agrees: "The post that I did has not been about the bike, it's been about the group of friends," he reflects. "The key to the gift is the amount of effort that's gone into it more so than the actual outcome."
This tradition of birthday builds continues. The group is already planning its next project, though it's still three years away. In a world where birthday presents sometimes become forgettable tokens, this group of friends has created something different – a tradition that combines craftsmanship, history, and deep personal connection. Each build tells a story not just of cycling, but of friendships that span decades, celebrate milestones, and preserve the passion that brought them together in the first place.
The build
Frame: Colnago Tecnos (1999/2000)
Fork: Colnago Precisa (1999/2000)
Groupset: Suntour Superbe Pro (shifters Suntour Sprint)
Tires: Vittoria Corsa Pro graphene cotton-wall
Rims: H Plus Son
Spokes: Sapim CX-Ray
Hubs: Suntour Superbe Pro (28 spokes front, 32 rear)
Skewers: Suntour
Pedals: Time Sport / Suntour (these are painted, but the proper ones are Suntour PLTM00, that were made by Time)
Saddle: Selle San Marco Rolls Le Rino
Stem: 3T
Bar: 3T
Bar tape: Pelten Shade
Seatpost: Suntour Superbe Pro
Bottom bracket: Suntour Superbe
Headset: Suntour Superbe Pro
Bidon cages: Elite Ciussi
Weight: ~9 kg (19.8 pounds)
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