Jon N. from Manchester, England recently bought two skatebikes on eBay. The first I had never heard of before, a Garel Monocycle. Garel Monocycles were made in Italy.

Yves Garel patented his skatebike on June 18, 1981. He licensed his patent to LeRun which is why there is such a similarity. This agreement was dissolved later and fell into litigation.

Garel Monocycle “Run” Seat

Garel Monocycle Label

Jon’s words.

I purchased the Garel Skatebike from eBay thinking it was a LeRun Skatebike and had the intention of restoring it as the previous owner had changed the front truck to that of a skateboard truck. When I received the Skatebike I tried it out in my local park and the skateboard truck was far too flexible and made it unusable so I tightened it as much as I could and managed to get some straight runs and a few wide corners before one of the front wheel coverings peeled off as it had become brittle and cracked over the years, so they will be on the list to be changed as part of the restoration. You can see that the hole spacing on the skateboard truck is larger than the Skatebike mounting holes and additional holes have been added to the skateboard truck in order to fit correctly.

The pedals are not really to my taste so I will probably change them too, I’m not sure if they are original or have been changed over the years like the skateboard truck. I took the rear wheel to a local bike shop for them to true the wheel which did improve the stability, however I may try and have some of the spokes changed as some are bent.

It has a 12 inch rear wheel, a 32 tooth crank, pedal backwards to brake and skid, 25.4mm diameter seat post that is 350mm long, the saddle has ‘run’ printed on the sides and back. At first I thought it was a faded and partially rubbed off ‘Lerun’ however Wiki shows that the Garel Skatebike was also called the ‘Run’ which would suggest the saddle is original.

I was considering sanding off the green and respraying it a different colour however as I’ve not been able to find any pictures of other Garel Skatebikes I am tempted to leave it green and try to remove as much of the rust and weathering as possible, change the trucks, tighten or replace some of the rear spokes and take it for a ride!