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44 Bikes doesn’t have a traditional “road” frame in their catalog. Instead, the Huntsman is their drop bar offering. A disc bike, designed for your specific riding style, the Huntsman comes in various custom configurations, including a new material: titanium. 44 Bikes just built up this beautiful Ti Huntsman for the Philly Bike Expo. Check out more photos below and if you’re interested in one, holler at 44 Bikes.
Photos by Eric Baumann
While the 2014 Philly Bike Expo is this weekend. Bryan from Royal H Cycles has decided to share the tale of his show bikes from last year. This is the first time I’ve seen these two bikes, both of which are incredibly unique, so it was nice having a back-story to the framebuilder’s influence and inspiration.
Head over to the Royal H Cycles blog for more!
What I said yesterday about Austin seeping with cross bikes stands true and I haven’t even begun to cover them. Mark from Majaco recently built up this sick singlespeed cross bike from True Temper OX Plat, specifically for the forthcoming Philly Bike Expo. His component choice is well thought out, putting the extra money where it counts and maintaining the aesthetics throughout.
Case in point: White Industries cranks and freewheel with Surly hubs. He then went with Paul and Thomson, resulting in a frame that by my judgement, weighs in around 16 or 17 lbs. It’s incredibly light!
I love the classic red to white livery and stainless head badge. For those interested in a similar frame, expect a pricepoint around $1400 for standard geometry or $1750 for fully custom.
This is the bike that really put Ian from Icarus Frames on the map. Well, at least that’s what I think anyway. My reasoning? It was one of the first truly over-sized / shaped tubesets he fillet brazed and the Fresh Frame paint job was so loud at the time, that I don’t think anyone was coming close to hitting that mark. Seriously, what the hell is up with those chevrons?!
Details, oh the details. This magnificant J.P. Weigle randonneur bike was propped up in the Bicycle Quarterly / Compass Bicycles booth at the Philly Bike Expo this year. And yet, for the life of me, I couldn’t make my way through the crowd to reach Jan Heine or Peter in order to photograph it the first day of the show.
Once I got their attention, I rolled this beauty out into the overcast skies for some lens love. Where do I begin? Herse cranks, SON hub, Mafac brakes, NOT Reynolds 531 decal. It’s impeccable. Even though I’m indifferent about 650B wheels on larger frames, I can surely confess my love for this piece of work. Somehow, the proportions work and this bike just pops. See for yourself in the gallery!
Where do I even begin with this bike? At the 2011 NAHBS, I spent the afternoon with Chris Bishop, after all the madness of the show had subsided. We rode around Austin, soaked up the sun, got lunch and chatted bikes. That’s when he asked if I would want to have a road bike in the 2012 NAHBS. Of course I wanted a Bishop road bike but I was torn. Since Chris was mostly known for lugged frames, would he want to make a modern, light, fillet frame? Hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted to be honest.
But first thing’s first. I had to get fit by Chris. After the Philly Bike Expo, I headed to Baltimore with him and Tommy, where I stayed the night and got fit in the morning. We began with what I knew, my Merckx road bike and some standard body dimensions. These became our starting point. From there, we tweaked the fit based on what kind of riding I do. Everything was dialed in on the fit bike: head tube angle, fork rake, seat tube angle, etc. Chris asked what I liked and what I didn’t like.
After some back and forth, we had a geometry and finally, a tubing selection: the downtube and chain stays are Columbus Spirit. The head tube is True Temper OX Platinum, Seat tube NOS Columbus MAX, seat stays, top tube are Dedacciai Zero. I wanted the bike as light as possible but not getting into weight weenie status so we went with an ENVE cockpit and a ENVE 1.0 fork, along with an ENVE post, which was made in the States a week before the show! Other tidbits include a Chris King No-Threadset headset and a Fizik Kurve saddle.
Since I love SRAM, a mix of Force and Red was used (not showing the Red Cassette) but I’m most stoked on the wheels. I went with Pewter Chris King R45s laced with Sapim spokes to HED Belgium Rims. Tommy built the wheels with CX Rays up front and Race spokes on the rear. But the frame is what makes the bike. Chris went to town on every single detail here. The cable stops were machined, the replacable, 7075 Paragon drop outs were machined, the pressfit 30 BB shell was hand filed and the fillet construction is pristine. So pristine that it won best fillet construction at the 2012 NAHBS. To top it off, Bryan at Fresh Frame and Tommy concocted one killer paint job, using my logo colors and my love for chevrons as a precedent.
There, enough talking, check out the Gallery by clicking the above photo or click here to open a new tab.
Chris Bishop is selling that drop-dead gorgeous MS track bike we saw at NAHBS and the Philly Bike Expo. It’s not cheap by any means but is the nicest track bike I’ve seen come from a builder in years.
Here are the details:
“Although I hate to do it, the MS track I showed at NAHBS is now for sale (frame and fork; wheels and other parts optional). I originally built this bike for myself and I love it, but I could never bring myself to ride it around town as a bike messenger because I am too hard on my bikes. Bike is 57.5 c-t, with 56 tt. Mint, never ridden. Need to make room and $ for new addition. Contact me if interested. This bike really needs to be ridden! Won best steel bike at NAHBS 2011.”
#STTB
I can honestly say that I’ve been following the work of Chris Bishop, of Bishop Bikes since he first began building frames in Charm City, USA, aka Baltimore. Chris has been building for over four years and his career as a bicycle messenger shaped the way that he looked at frame design. His work started out as almost all track bikes: simple, elegant street machines and slowly grew into road, rando, and cross frames. Chris still works as a part-time messenger and stepping into his workspace was like visiting a time capsule of messenger events from the 90’s.
Over the years, he’s produced some of the most stunning bicycles, all with their own style and catered to his client’s specific needs. After the Philly Bike Expo, I traveled to Baltimore with Chris to check out his shop and get fit for my road bike.
Check out more below!
One of the bikes that I missed out on photographing at the 2010 Philly Bike Expo was Chris Bishop‘s own singlespeed cross bike. I wondered why Chris hadn’t posted it up sooner but in a recent post on the Bishop blog, he refers to himself as “not much of an internet guy“, so he relies on his wife to handle much of his PR movements on the internet (hats off to her!). One of those PR movements is finally posting photos of this bike.
Check out more photos of Chris Bishop’s singlespeed cross bike below.
Chris Bishop is back at it full swing after taking time off for a rather successful trip to NAHBS. With the Philly Bike Expo looming overhead, he’s cranking out the details. Take this hand-carved bottom bracket shell. Stunning! Maybe mine will have that detail.
;-)
Keep on top of Chris’ work at the Bishop Progress Blog and the Bishop Flickr.
We checked out this killer frame from Chris Bishop prior to the 2010 Philly Bike Expo but never got to see the complete build. Now Chris has some photos up on his Flickr of David’s Columbus MAX roadie and whistles are heard around the world. But that’s not all, Keith from Bmore Fixed visited Chris’ shop where he uncovered the treasures, the tools and opurrations that keeps Bishop running. Although I must say Chris, those sandals need to be replaced with a work boot! Ha!
When Alan from Cycling WMD was building this beast up inside the 2010 Philly Bike Expo, I kept coming by to harass him. It was the first time he built SRAM Apex on any bike and along with various other problems with the build, he was having a difficult time getting her rolling. Now that it’s done, Alan took this crazy mini tallbike roadie out for some TLC through the lens of his camera.
You can read up more on this freakish project over at Cycling WMD!
Photo by Milica Wren
I can hear Ian’s voice now as his twists his mustache and puts a blow-torch to my face “when you going to post these photos Prolly?”. Well Ian, I wanted to wait until Monday morning! Ian, the master builder over at Icarus has a few new projects up on his Flickr. Two of them were featured in my 2010 Philly Bike Expo posts but this one in particular got some much-needed photo love. This bi-laminate lugged track bike began as a sketch and was finished in time for the PBE. It’s a gorgeous example of Ian’s craftsmanship and it proves that you too can play World of Warcraft and still lead a meaningful life.
Check out a close-up of the head tube lugs below.
When I saw this bike at the Philly Bike Expo, my jaw dropped. Did he really put a translucent blue over chrome? Was it really my size? Both answers were yes and when I asked Bryan if I could photograph this bike, his answer was the same.
Check out more photos of this Royal H. Cycles candy chrome track bike below.
Yeah, sure. Whatever, I’m posting another bike frame with a heart on it. To be honest, I’d rather have a Columbus MAX frame than an SLX anyday. David’s MAX roadie is finally complete. I’ve been watching the Bishop Flickr account for weeks now in anticipation for the finished product. Custom rear triangle, MAX main, hand-cut lugs. Drool! But you don’t have to take my word for it, head over to the Bishop Bikes Flickr to check out the rest of the photos.
And yes, I stand by my words: MAX is the best tubeset Columbus has ever produced. Period. I wonder if this is going to the Philly Bike Expo?
The Philadelphia Bike Expo is approaching. From October 30th – 31st, the 23rd Street Armory will be transformed into a plethora of bicycle porn. Filled with frame builders and companies from all over, it’s bound to be a good time! Right now, if you buy a 2-day event pass, you can get a free poster. I just spent my $20. See you there?
Previously:
Philadelphia Bike Expo Update
Philadelphia Bike Exposition
Here’s an update to the Philadelphia Bike Exposition that’s coming up at the end of October. There will be a fashion show and a swap put on by NY Bike Jumble, along with the bike expo. A lot of great builders will be there and a small group of us are probably going to ride there from NYC. If you’re down, we’ll be posting updates and information for that ride shortly. Oh, it’s on Halloween so it’ll be interesting!
Previously:
Philadelphia Bike Exposition
Flier for the @PhillyBikeExpo
Big ups to Bilenky for putting this on. I’ll be there. Will you? As a special promotion, if you follow @PhillyBikeExpo on Twitter, you get the chance to win a @bilenkycycles t-shirt!
