March 24th, 2011 scottk
This white road bike with LSU inspired colours is going to Mike in Louisiana. Hugh and Mike have known each other for a long time and back when Mike was a university student Hugh built him a bike. Unfortunately, Mike was hit by a car last year and not only did he sustain some pretty bad injuries but his bike was totaled. Now that Mike is on the mend, his thoughts turned to a new bike paying homage to his Alma Matter. Mike’s old road bike pre-dates the Bikecad software we now use, so we had to get a little creative with finding his existing bike’s measurements. You can click on the photo below to see the photo-shopped picture he sent us. To give you an idea of the damage to the frame, check out the seatstays. Those were originally straight, they aren’t DKS or Terraplane or anything along those lines; the frame is simply that badly buckled. The old bike now has a special place on Mike’s wall at home.
For his new bike Mike chose SRAM Red with the Limited Edition Tour yellow graphics. This bike features Zipp 404 Firecrest wheels, a Chris King headset and a very cool Ano purple Salsa Lip-lock seat collar.
Mike’s (not the same Mike) new mountain bike features the very cool 11 speed Alfine rear hub. We do a fair amount of bikes with internally geared hubs as they just make sense for a lot of people; all the gearing range with the simplicity of not having to worry about derailleurs.
Mike’s new bike features a Brooks Saddle and a Titec H-Bar for the very best in contact points, as well as a King Headset and WTB tires. My favorite part is the very cool matte green paint job.
Finally we have Paul’s new city bike. Paul wanted a bike that wouldn’t attract a lot of attention (you’ll note it doesn’t have a downtube logo) but fit great, handle better and would be adept at both city riding and mountain biking. The frame is made out of some very cool Tange Prestige Ultrastrong tubing that we had stored away. If you’re at all familiar with 1993-1995 Kona and Norco mountain bikes then you will probably recognize this tubeset. This bike is equipped with an Alfine hub, Sugino cranks and Avid V-brakes.
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March 11th, 2011 scottk
Please forgive the large snowbank in the background of all these photos. All the trees and rocks I normally prop the bikes up against for photos are covered and judging by the snow we’re receiving at this very moment, we’re not going to see them anytime soon.
John’s new road bike turned out amazing. It features a Columbus Spirit tube set and a matching lugged fork. What really sets this bike off is the beautiful pearl white paint job, the pictures don’t do it justice, it looks amazing in person.
John’s bike features a mix of Campy Record components, a Chris King headset, Eriksen Ti post and handbuilt wheels with Ultegra hubs and Mavic Open Pro ceramic rims. Ultegra Hubs and Campy components you ask? Not something we do every day, but in this instance John already owned a very nice wheelset but wanted Campagnolo shifting; so with the help off a Shiftmate adaptor, we made it work.
Jennie’s new touring bike makes use of 26 inch wheels to help her achieve the perfect fit. Smaller wheels increase standover and reduce toe/tire overlap which are two important factors to consider when a bike such as this is fully loaded for an extended tour. This bike features a complete 105 triple drivetrain and hand built wheels with XT hubs and Ambrosio rims. The Avid BB7 disc brakes will provide powerful and reliable braking for years to come.
Jennie decided to outfit her bike with stainless Velo Orange fenders which are not only super classy looking but also plenty useful for mitigating the effects of poor weather.
Graydon’s S&S coupling equipped touring bike stands in stark contrast to Jennie’s bike. He is far taller than her and therefore had a whole host of different considerations that factored into the design of his bike.First off, this bike is titanium. Every once in a while we get a request to have a Ti frame painted and on this frame the bare titanium shows through around the S&S couplings and on the True North down tube font. Graydon has really large feet and requested very long chainstays in order to provide ample heel clearance while using panniers. In fact the chainstays on this bike are so long that even with a 35c tire and a fender, a full water bottle can still be mounted behind the seat tube.Finally Graydon wanted to use the superb Schmidt SON dynamo front hub to power a light and rear blinker. Hugh welded on extra mounts on the top tube which allow for the wiring to easily attached and taken off when the bike gets broken down for travel.
This bike features a SRAM Apex drivetrain with R2C bar end shifters and such gems as a Phil Wood rear hub, stainless tubus racks and the ultra rare and super stunning Titanium Chris King headset.
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January 26th, 2011 scottk
If you had to own just one bike, this might be one for consideration. Mark’s new bike features a steel frame, S and S couplings (very popular as of late) and long reach brakes. Which means this bike is dependable, easy to travel with and incredibly versatile.
Mark could put on some light weight 23c tires and race this bike or he might put on some more durable 28c tires, fenders and racks and go touring. Then again, he could ditch the fenders, slap some high volume 32c tires on his bike and go explore dirt roads and rail trails.
Fortunately for Mark, we don’t enforce a one bike limit and this bike will compliment a beautiful Dura Ace equipped road bike he got from us several years back.
This bike features a Chris King headset, hand built wheels featuring Campagnolo Record hubs laced to Ambrosio Excellight rims and a full 11 speed Campagnolo Athena drivetrain. We decided to use the new KMC X11 SL chain on this bike; normally we’re a big fan of Wipperman chains because of their durable and dependable nature, as well as their easy to use quick link. The only trouble is that Wipperman doesn’t yet make an 11 speed chain and quick links make packing an S and S coupling bike a breeze. KMC chains are quite popular aftermarket chains for mountain bikes so we’re quite certain it’ll handle the long miles Mark will ride.
Sean recently finished a repaint on an older Specialized Tandem. The colour is really cool and will change depending on how the light hits it.
We also installed some S and S couplings on an older titanium Litespeed frame this week. It’s getting a two-tone black and orange powder coat paint job.
I’ll leave you with a photo of Hugh in action.
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January 10th, 2011 scottk
We apologize for it being so quiet on the blogging front the past few weeks. With the holidays and Hugh moving to a new house, things have been very busy. Now that the new year is upon us, it is time to hunker down and build some bikes. The first bike to go out the door in 2011 is Hans’ flat bar road bike. Built with comfort in mind, this bike allows for an upright riding position, but does not forsake speed in the process. The Campagnolo triple drivetrain allows for the proper gear no matter the terrain, and the steel frame in concert with the Eriksen ‘Sweetpost’ will afford Hans the smooth ride he is looking for.
Once Hugh and Hans come to a consensus on his bar position and stem length, we will cut the steerer and remove the excess spacers. Picking up a new custom bike isn’t as simple as walking out the door with it. Hugh takes the time to do a final fit with each customer, adjusting saddle height, fore and aft, stem length, bar height and width amongst other things. A custom fitting frame is only part of the equation; there are many other ways to improve the interface and experience between bike and rider.
Hugh just finished work on a very large titanium frame with S and S couplings. The frame is now off to Sean for finish work before ending up in my hands at assembly. Keep checking back for pictures of this bike and many more that we will build in 2011. We’d like to thank everyone for your support in 2010 and wish everyone a happy and successful 2011!
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