Fall is definitely my busy season for building bikes. Lots of shows and lots of deadlines. Mark was going to be traveling to one of those shows earlier this month so that was my deadline. I had ironed out a lot of the details with him over email so the build went relatively quick. On […]
Sometimes a bike is defined by the components that are on it. The Rohloff Speedhub is one of those components. The bike needs to be designed around it and that’s why a lot of Rohloff rear hubs are on custom frames. There are several different variations on the Rohloff hub and we decided to get […]
I don’t get a lot of requests for road bikes but oh, how I love to build them. And even more so if the person definitely needs a custom frame. And especially so if the person I’m building for is one of the nicest people on the planet. In this day and age niceness is […]
When Huw came to me for a city bike, he was not alone. He came with a crew of friends called the Bike Purchasing Committee (BPC)—two (originally) from Wales and two from state side. Although they say too many cooks spoil the broth, I was ultimately the cook catering specifically to Huw. I took the […]
It’s not too often that I get the opportunity to build a straight up road bike. The geometry of the modern road bike has been evolving over the years based on frame design and component trends. Tires are getting bigger and a lot of road bikes don’t have the clearances needed. Although this one has […]
So Nina’s father got her a Schwinn World Voyager when she was a child. Now, we all have a fondness of our first nice bike and I understand why she loved it. It was a combination of the chrome, the orange, and the overall presentation. So when she wanted me to build her a bike, […]
Ted came to me looking for a new bike. He wanted a randonneur with lights, fenders, rack, and he wanted it to be a travel friendly bike. The challenge immediately started as there is not a whole lot of room in the 26″x26″x10″ case. The bike has 650x42B tires that fit nicely in the case […]
Michael came to me looking for a touring bike with specific requirements for the racks. Michael is a custom bag maker with some serious skills out of San Francisco. He designed a set of panniers that hold onto the rack via a long flap with velcro. Because of this, a slot needed to be incorporated […]
It’s been a little while since I did my last 650B city bike. But judging by the upcoming builds on my list, it’s going to be a big year for the 650B wheel size. I’m not pushing the size one way or another, it just makes sense for certain applications. On this fillet brazed commuter, […]
Our tandem and trailer
October 29, 2015
My wife, Hilary, and I have been riding a Jack Taylor tandem for the past 5 years. We got it off of Craigslist because it sort of fit us and it was a fun novelty. It turns out that we actually work really well together on a tandem so that got me thinking about building […]