Custom Eyewater Build

Here at Fair Wheel, we recently had the pleasure of doing a custom build with a frame from Eyewater. I first remember hearing about Eyewater in 2018 when they received the 'Best New Exhibitor' award at NAHBS.

Corey Lowe, founder of Eyewater has a ton of experience both on and off the bike; he grew up riding and racing bikes, and ultimately decided to devote his life to bikes. After getting a mechanical engineering degree he wasted no time and went straight to designing bikes. He cut his teeth in the bike industry designing frames for Specialized, Parlee, and Cannondale no less. This gave him time to not only understand and perfect the process of building a frame from the ground up, it also allowed him to develop and expand upon his own ideas and methods involved in hand building custom bike frames. He even ended up building and programming the oven he uses for all of his frames. This is a builder who pours everything into his craft and it shows.

As per usual with our builds, this bike has some attractive and fun parts.

Alpitude Stelvio mount.

Schmolke EVO TLO Handlebar and Stem.

The back of the Schmolke TLO Stem is just too perfect to not show...

This bike is a custom project for one of our friends who also happens to be a close buddy of the guys at Eyewater. The goal was to create a bike that was UCI legal bike in terms of weight regulations, while also being plenty stiff for a powerful rider. The end result did not let down at all, as we ended up with a race legal build that was nice and stiff, and quite stylish as well.

We also chose Carbon-Ti Road X-Hubs, an excellent and reliable option.

Alpitude Superleggero cages are among our most popular, and we felt they were a perfect match for this build. To make sure no bottles were lost on bumpy roads, we repurposed rubber grommets from a set of Tune cages—keeping everything secure and rattle-free.

Finishing it off is the Bjōrn Glagol Offset Seatpost, a subtle but refined detail.

Take a close look at these dropouts—beautifully 3D-printed by Silca for Eyewater. They also printed the rear brake bridge. Paired with 3K carbon lugs and unidirectional tubing, the craftsmanship here is nothing short of art.

The TRP brakes on this build provide impressive clearance. While this bike is currently set up with 30mm tires, there's easily room to go wider—32mm or even 34mm would fit without issue. It’s a great setup for riders who want a bit more comfort or versatility without compromising performance. Up front, the drivetrain is dialed with Rotor Aldhu carbon crank arms, paired with Oval rings and the INspider power meter. The whole build is so clean and well thought-out, I caught myself just standing there, drooling—until I remembered I still had to take photos.

In closing, its easy to see that Eyewater is doing something really special. Blending form and function, creating a race ready machine, that also stands alone as a artistic expression is something that every serious frame builder aspires to do, and from where I'm standing I can tell you that Corey and his team at Eyewater are doing the job to perfection. 

Until next time, happy riding!