One of the best parts about traveling around the world by bicycle is getting the chance to meet fellow bike nerds from all kinds of different backgrounds and get a peek into the local cycling culture. Whether it’s Soulrider Frameworks in Türkiye or Scarab Cycles in Colombia, it’s always a joy to meet cool people who are making cool things that they’re passionate about. Follow along as Ryan Wilson takes a tour through a few Shop Visits in Athens, one of the oldest cities in the world.
It started with a trip to the local bike shop, looking for a new brake rotor after realizing that I had packed the wrong size in my bike box before flying to Athens, Greece. With a quick scour of the internet, I randomly stumbled upon an interesting looking shop in the heart of the city that looked right up my alley.
Vicious Cycles Athens
The busy streets nearby are filled with gyros shops, street vendors, Greek bakeries, and cafes, only a stone’s throw from the mighty Acropolis itself (if you’ve got the arm of a Greek god). Tucked down a small side street in a courtyard lies Vicious Cycles Athens. Like much of the city center, the front facade of VCA is covered with an intricate mural and then topped with a cluster of graffiti, perfectly suiting the vibe of the shop itself, which specializes in rattle can paint designs, courtesy of the sister company they helped found, Spray.Bike.
VCA was co-founded by Jimmy Tofu back in 2010 as the first fixed-gear oriented shop in Greece, and since then it has evolved into what it has become today, doing everything from custom bikes and builds, to paint, service, and parts. When Jimmy isn’t out racing the Hellenic Mountain Race, he’s probably toiling in the shop or out riding in the mountains that sit on the edge of Athens itself or dabbling in film photography.
As one of the earliest shops to dive into the culture of bikes in Athens, Vicious is really the central hub of Greece’s budding bike scene. If you’re into bikes and living in the city, you probably know Jimmy. It was there that I spotted a few soft goods with a tag that read “ENA Bags” and soon found out that there was a local producing bike oriented bags just on the other side of town, so after a tour and chat at VCA, I knew I had to pay them a visit.
ENA Bags
ENA bags was founded by Giannos when he was living in Belgium during the pandemic. He wasn’t super experienced with sewing at the time, but picked up bag making as a hobby to make an attempt at producing a few pieces of kit for himself and his friends, but soon found it blossoming into a fully fledged business as demand for bikepacking and touring gear soared.
A couple of years later, he moved back to his home country of Greece and opened up this workshop in Athens where he produces a full range of bikepacking and commuting bags. Everything from panniers, top tube bags, custom frame bags, and a range of bar bags to backpacks and hip bags. Each bag is lovingly crafted in the Greek capital and individually numbered.
Light beams into the space from the large windows that span nearly the full surface of two of its walls courtesy of the strong Mediterranean sun. Cycling books and memorabilia line the shelves. Between the hanging bikes adorned with ENA kit and the endless rolls of cordura, framed ride event posters show a glimpse into cycling community that is being built here.
In particular, their “Loose Spokes” event which ENA, VCA, and Donhou have collaborated on to get local riders out into the mountains for an overnighter, which has turned into an annual tradition. ENA also hosts everything from photo exhibits to local swap meets where cyclists can come by and trade their wares. If you’re coming through Athens, ya gotta stop by and say hi. If you’re not, check out their website at ENAbags.com
Donhou Bicycles
Note: Since my visit to Donhou’s Athens workshop and store during the summer, Tom has decided to close up the shop and move back to the UK. I did, however, still want to include the photos from visit to the shop as an ode to the beautiful frames that Donhou has crafted over the years.
Tom has been building the finest quality steel frames for decades at this point, getting his start back in the UK in 2007. If you’ve followed the custom bike show circuit over the years, no doubt you’ve seen his bikes taking home awards at events like NAHBS and Bespoked.
It was a multi-month tour through Asia, starting from Mongolia, that got the gears turning in Tom’s mind about design a custom bike for himself. He thought about all of the tweaks he wanted to make to his touring rig, and used that to dive into custom frame building once he got home.
Through the years, he’s honed his craft and developed the clean aesthetic that his bikes are known for, whether the customer wants a head-turning razzle dazzle meets CMY fade gravel bike or an understated around-town utility machine.
Displayed across the shop are some of Tom’s iconic projects from over the years, including his 104-tooth chainringed land speed bike. If you haven’t had a chance to catch the mini-documentary on that bike, it’s worth a look.
Tom utilized his workshop as a hub for local events during his time in Greece, hosting the Athens Divide, an evening race through a chain of unmanaged hills that sit in the center of the city itself, which you can find a writeup for on this very site. While Tom is no longer running his Donhou shop out of Athens, he hopes to continue establishing local bike events like these under the Donhou name, wherever the future takes him.
Big thanks to the folks at Vicious, ENA, and Donhou for allowing me to stop by showing me around! If you’re in town, be sure to stop by Vicious and ENA!