Posts from the ‘Custom Bikes’ Category

We have a fairly active community on our forum, and that community is extremely creative and loves its bicycles. I admit that I don’t get over there nearly enough, but every time I do I’m blown away by the bicycles, wheels and components that get posted.  So when trying to decide which bike would open our category for customer submitted bikes, I had my work cut out.  How did I want to go about this. Stealth and minimal (2010 Neo Ultimate – 11.6lb)? Give a new-classic it’s chance in a tastefully done replica Colnago. How about a truly loud bike, or a demonstration of how in your face simple black and white can be? Or show off Aero over grams in a weight weenie world, but why not a flashy Italian frame, or some creative photography, or a bit of exotic, OR?!?!? Read more

Recently Layne asked us to build him a new bike. The goal was to do something not only with a stellar ride, but that would also be unique on a group ride, would stand out in a crowd and at the same time be subtle and non-assuming. The result is this Storck Fenomalist Di2. For a theme we decided to take something as simple as the outline logo of the frame and carry that through the rest. Yes, I know the rims do not currently match the theme, but we are still waiting on the custom decals for those. The ride is of course stellar. And the looks, well, I think they are just right. Stealth but without looking like Darth Vaders bike. The bike weight ended up at 13 pounds. Read more

If you’re reading this blog then you probably already know that one of the things I enjoy most about this job is getting to build special projects.  For this years Interbike we have some really special projects planned that will take what we’ve done in the past to a whole new level.  My only fear is that next year there really won’t be any way to improve on what we do this year.  While I can’t talk about either of our main projects, I can give a sneak peek at one part for one of the projects.

So without further ado I present you with our 943 gram (actually it’s 942.7 grams to be precise.) 29″  tubular wheelset. Read more

The Di2 Mountain Bike project was conceived upon considering the following question, “What will the future of mountain biking be?” Internally routed hydraulic and electrical lines, carbon fiber rotors, “single sided forks”, and electric shifting are just some of the possibilities this bike executes. The main focus was to bring together a variety of unique parts in a durable racable platform. The build is not necessarily the lightest, but still weighs a feathery 18lbs.

The paint scheme was designed by Fairwheel’s Brian Meyer after a discussion involving how to implement Di2 in to a mountain bike platform. Discussion considered the pro’s and con’s of combining a classic panel design with emerging technology and components. The paint lets the carbon tubing emerge amidst classic banding and paneling, while utilizing new color approaches to old designs. The schematics of the seat and top tube cluster are a combination of Di2 elements and circuitry. Read more

Light bikes don’t have to be boring, as aptly stated during the “light bike” project discussion. An anonymous individual set the tone, with “it would be exciting to do a design that isn’t in the Darth Vador, Deathstar aesthetic”. We were excited at the prospect of working with artist Geoff Mcfetridge to create a design outside what is often a stealthy conservative look.

For the “light-bike” Mcfetridge designed a variety of abstract iconic imagery exploring a narrative of the psychological turmoil encountered while pedaling along our favorite pastime. Read more

Sometimes it’s in the everyday conversation with our customers over the turns of wrenches from which the best Ideas are born. You know the saying “It’s the Cadillac of bikes?” Well for us, Cadillac doesn’t always fit; they have style and quality, but they tend to be big and slow and eat up a lot of gas. We prefer Lamborghini – light, fast, flashy; a car that is often more of a racer than it’s driver, built for careening around switchbacks in the Italian Alps.

With this in mind, we decided to make a Parlee that had everything a true bike aficionado could fall in love with, and more – a bike that would never leave you wanting. We happen to have a customer who was looking for just such a bike and he gave us Carte blanche to let our imaginations run. So, in the summer of 2008 we teamed up with Bob Parlee and Dave Sem to show not that the Parlee is the Lamborghini of bikes, but that Lamborghini is the Parlee of Cars. With Parlee beginning to distinguish themselves from the rest of the high-end road bike market, why not? Read more

Cory Rosene is new to the bike building world, having apprenticed under David Bohm for the last 2 years. Rosene has honed his skills for his Interbike debut, with a stainless steel cyclocross bike. Not only this Rosene’s first foray in to building with Reynolds 953 stainless steel, it is also his first cross frame.

Rosene designed this bike to be raced, utilizing stout chain-chain stays to add additional stiffness. Like many steel bikes, Rosene utilized beautifully crafted lugs, but unlike many cross frames, the bottom bracket is also lugged. This was an important consideration for his design, which uses a combination of bead-blasted and polished surfaces passing through a green skeleton. This emphasizes the lugged construction of the bike, blending modern materials with classic aesthetics in a seamless vision of performance and beauty.
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Since 1994, David Bohm has earned a reputation for creating some of the most beautiful, custom steel bicycle frames in the world. Cyclists seek him looking for a unique, exquisitely crafted bicycle that they’ll be proud to own and love to ride.

In collaboration with Fairwheel Bikes and KVA David Bohm has created a road frame, utilizing KVA’s new stainless steel tubeset. The weight of the frame came in slightly over 3lbs, with the complete bike weighing just 13.5lbs – one of the lightest steel builds we’ve seen.

Bohm’s design contains keen aesthetic themes such as Art Deco inspired lugs, Egyptian influenced color, and unique materials not generally seen in frame construction. Palladium Leaf, Gold, Mother of Pearl and shell inlay, as well as raw Silver are just some of the exotic adornments making this bike a one of a kind creation.
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Our first true breakthrough in custom bike builds — The world’s lightest bicycle. This bike is so many things for us: it is the foundation upon which much of our current success is built; it culminates the experience of creating, designing and being a part of a world’s first. We have built the first bike to go below the 8.0 pound mark. We were told to build the lightest bike and we responded by breaking through the previous industry standard. This project is a custom build using parts from the now defunct company M2 Racer, a lightweight bicycle component manufacturer. The core of the bike is the Litespeed Ghisallo. Although this frame went on to become the lightest production bike on the market, we wanted to go further and make it even lighter. To show them how we could take their product to the next level, a level only made necessary by our desire to push the industry to even greater heights towards perfection, we convinced them to give us one of their prototypes, a frame that had not had the extra bits of material added to account for manufacturing tolerances.

From there, it was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work selecting the best combination of parts that would bring our goal into fruition. A bike can only be bought down to a certain level of lightness. To go even further takes time, education, experimentation and customization. We began with some obvious customization: pulling apart the derailleurs, replacing stock springs with wrapped Ti rods, manually removing excess materials in the brake levers, cranks and dérailleurs. Next, we convinced Zero Gravity to send us a prototype brake-set made out of aluminum, a set so light it never made it to production due to costs. We then went to the Carbon Fiber lab at the University of Arizona to create a one-off carbon fiber cassette, mating it with M2 Racer’s already lightweight componentry.
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Early 2005, a quiet murmur began to spread through the cycling industry. Word had begun circulating that a SRAM intended to re-write the book on integrated shifting, but would it happen? Could it happen? How would they go toe to toe with the giants that had dominated the road group market for so many years?

By 2006, when SRAM announced the unveiling of their new road groupo, the murmur had grown to a roar. SRAM was already well respected for their mountain bike components, having started their company with grip shift in 1988. If they could bring the same level of functionality, durability, weight, and ergonomics to the road, Shimano and Campagnolo might have to look out.

Of course now this is old news. Today, SRAM is a major player in the road market, a maker of trusted and reliable road components, but at the time of their release everyone was reading the pre-release reviews with rapt attention. Shimano and Campagnolo had years of experience under their belts; grouppos has been time-tested and tweaked over generations. Could this relative newcomer really introduce a whole new design with any success? Could it compete or even compare? Reviewers highlighted the ergonomics; the shifting action was revolutionary and it seemed that SRAM was making good on it’s claim: a radical new take on drive-train, shifters, and brakes. The new technology was quickly embraced by the industry and took its place among the “big-boys” of road.
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