Vincent was born in a small town in Minnesota, just outside of Saint Paul, in 1966. He has lived in and around Saint Paul and Minneapolis his entire life. Most of his bicycle riding has taken place there, too, with the occasional ride to Ontario and in California. Vincent is married to his wonderful wife, Linda. They live in Saint Paul and share responsibility for their current non-human wards: Samantha, BJ, and Lucy.

Vincent Domínguez first tried riding a bicycle at the age of four years. He failed miserably. In fact, the experience was so traumatic, he didn’t make another attempt for five years: that summer, he made another effort on his older brother’s training wheel-equipped Huffy banana seat bicycle. As he soon found out, training wheels interfere with the proper operation of a bicycle and he had them promptly removed. Ever since then, he’s been riding his or his siblings’ bicycles everywhere he could. Of course, now he has his own bikes to ride.

Further inspired at an early age by his eldest brother’s passion for cycling, Vincent read everything he could about bicycles and bicycling; bicycle repair, framebuilding, wheel building and anything to do with bicycles. In the winter of 1979, Vincent accompanied his eldest brother on a visit with local framebuilder, Terry Osell, at his garage workshop to pick up the custom frameset Vincent’s brother had commissioned. It was then and there that Vincent grabbed hold of the idea of building his own framesets, newly inspired by the craftsmanship exhibited by Terry Osell.

During the intervening years, Vincent was side-tracked by computers and the programming of them. This allowed him to own many bicycles (several custom) at different times and ride thousands of miles every year: he raced on the road (not very well); rode on the track (but never raced); and mostly toured for long distances. He was co-founder and co-owner of a successful bicycle repair shop during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, when he learned much about bike fit and rider comfort and efficiency. Vincent also engaged in several of his many hobbies during that time: jewelry making, woodworking, metalworking, and model building.

It wasn’t until the fall of 2002 that Vincent was able to realize the particular dream of framebuilding. Once again, through the inspiration and encouragement of Terry Osell and, most importantly, the encouragement and support of his wife, Linda. Vincent visited Terry in his Northeast Minneapolis bike shop (Osell’s) to inquire about framebuilding classes, which Terry had sometimes offered. Unfortunately, that was the year Terry was thinking about retirement and closing his shop: he was not offering instruction that winter. Instead, Terry introduced Vincent to his shop mechanic and frame repairman, Paul Wyganowski, a former student and apprentice of Tim Paterek (who was a former student and apprentice of Terry Osell) and an excellent unicycle and bicycle framebuilder in his own right. Paul was willing and able to instruct Vincent in framebuilding that winter. Thus began Vincent’s two-year apprenticeship with Paul Wyganowski, a master of the fillet-brazed joint. Paul is also well-known the world over for his custom-built unicycles and accessories.

For the next year, Vincent learned framebuilding techniques from Paul in his basement workshop. First, he was taught how to design a frame. Paul’s depth and breadth of knowledge and Vincent’s previous self-education and drafting experience made this a simple exercise. Much more difficult was learning the technique of fillet-brazing thin-wall tubing. Paul was of the opinion that Vincent should learn the more difficult-to-master heat control required for fillet brazing from the start, as that would make brazing with silver a relatively simple task.

Vincent’s first hand-made frameset was built for his wife, Linda, under the tutelage of Paul Wyganowski over the course of nine months. Much elbow grease and attention to detail were involved. The result was a fillet-brazed, 46cm-equivalent, sloping top tube sport touring frameset for 700c wheels. It had (and still does) a polished stainless steel fork crown and fluted seat stay caps, internal rear brake cable routing, G.P. Wilson dropouts and fork ends, and paint by Joe Bell. Linda likes it and rides it whenever she can.

Vincent’s second hand-made frameset was built for himself over the next six months, also in the workshop of Paul Wyganowski. Much labor and attention to detail were involved. The result was a lugged frameset for fixed-gear sport touring. This is currently his favorite bicycle for day rides.

Vincent’s passion is fixed-gear, long-distance touring, especially the type known as “randonneur”ing. But, he enjoys shorter rides (less than 100 miles) with his wife and family and friends and still endeavors to ride his Bridgestone MB-1 off-road, from time-to-time.

Since the formal establishment of Vincent Domínguez Cycles in 2002, Vincent has begun filling orders for custom framesets. He is also collaborating with Paul Wyganowski to produce various framebuilding components, and collaborating with his older brother, Stéphan, to produce various cycling accessories.