- Now, I don't know about you but I have always
got time for new bike tech.
And this being the Bespoke Show, which is the UK's
Hand-Built Bike Show, there are bikes here that
are utterly unique.
Things that you will not see anywhere else.
So,
let's have a look and see just what we can find.
(blues rock music)
T-Red bikes are a new one on me,
but they've come to this show all the way from Italy.
They're based in Lake Garda, in the north of the country,
and they've got some incredible looking bikes on display.
It's a relatively new company, just 2-1/2 years old
and all of the staff come from outside of the bike
industry and they brought some really, really interesting
ideas with them.
This one here, which I absolutely love, is the Arachnid.
And although it's actually part of a range,
they're all made of different material, so this is the
titanium one, as you can see, disc brakes.
Really racy geometry, they tell me.
Behind is a carbon fibre one, but then there's
a steel one that I think you're gonna be
really, really keen to see,
'cause it is this one.
And it weighs just 5.8 kilos, for a complete bike.
For a steel bike, that's pretty nuts.
And the way they've done it, is they've actually created
their own steel alloy,
and then built the bike out of it, so the frame itself
weighs just 1.3 kilos,
which like I say, for steel, that's pretty nuts.
You'll be familiar, I hope, with the name Sturdy Cycles
from our frame-building series because Tom Sturdy is the
man that actually designed the GCN hand-built bike.
And this here is one of his own creations, done under
his own label, Sturdy Cycles, and this actually is
his very own Time Trial bike.
And if you look at it, it's a complete work of art.
Very, very nice indeed.
This is Metier-Velo.
They come from Salt Lake City in the U.S. and they are
building bikes out of 3D-printed titanium lugs
and carbon fibre tubes, meaning that you can get
a completely and utterly bespoke bike.
Now here is an example of said 3D printed lug.
If you look closely, it's so intricate,
it's absolutely incredible.
And although this bike here is a SRAM eTap,
they tell me that you can do things with 3D prints
that you can't do with any other way, including
actually building internal cable guides for, let's say,
Di2 wiring or something like that.
Absolutely amazing.
And then, one of my favourite bits,
if you'll excuse me for being so fickle,
is the finish on these lugs here.
They've left it really raw,
and so it's unlike anything you
ever see in the bike industry.
It's almost
medieval looking, like cast iron.
Absolutely fantastic.
Now, like many brands here at the show, the background
is absolutely fascinating.
Most people have a life-long passion for bikes,
but perhaps professional career that isn't normally,
typically bike industry.
So Jamie White, who is the owner of Metier-Velo,
actually comes from neuroscience.
It's just so cool.
Neuroscientist,
bike builder.
(bluesy rock music)
I was particularly excited when I heard that English Cycles
were gonna be at the show.
I've been wanting to see these bikes,
in the raw,
for a long time and here they are.
Despite the name, they actually come from Eugene, Oregon,
but Rob English has made the trip over.
And one of the bikes he's brought with him is this
Time Trial beauty.
There's so much innovation on here,
I don't even know where to start.
The fact that not all the tubes actually
come from the bicycle industry in the first place,
the seat tube, it's this airfoil here, and it actually
comes from the aerospace industry.
And if we take a closer look up front,
there is a custom headset bearing at the top there
to allow for a super-small diameter head tube.
The USE stem has been modified to allow for that
power pod there, so that gives the rider
his drag coefficient, so he can actually
analyse his position when he's riding.
There's also a bit of
customization there to allow for just a
exposed brake cable to go through.
So you'll notice, as well as the fact that it's
SRAM eTap, there are no brake cables sticking out anywhere.
The rear brake cable will go straight out
the back of the stem, and then the rear brake
is mounted down there.
Whilst we're over here,
take a look at these drop outs, okay?
So in order to make sure that
you've always got the rear wheel in the most
aerodynamically optimal position,
regardless of tyre size, often Time Trial bikes have
horizontal drop outs to allow you to get the rear
wheel as close as it can to the seat tube there.
But, horizontal drop outs are a bit of a nightmare,
particularly with derailleurs, and so Rob has actually
designed, custom-machined this eccentric drop out
to allow you eight millimetres of forward and backward
adjustment and still use a standard rear wheel with
not quite quick release, it's an Allen key bold there,
but the same principal.
Amazing.
Oh, and custom chain keeper there for the
Osymetric chainring.
It might be April but it is always time for Cyclocross
as far as I'm concerned, especially when the bike
looks as cool as this Mercredi behind me.
Now, you'll notice it is super low
and so that sparks a bit of a nickname from the builder,
Adeline O'Moreau, who's a Belgian
former Cyclocross racer herself.
And she nicknamed it the Sausage Dog,
and that has kinda stuck, including, if you look at that
paint work, Sausage Dog camo.
That's amazing.
Now we couldn't help but stop by at Talbot Frameworks
after I saw this.
This bike epitomises the custom-build industry.
It was built for a rider with dwarfism,
and so they hadn't ever been able to have
a top-end bike before, and so Talbot have allowed
them to do just that.
It is a proper, full-on, Road Racing bike,
built around 24-inch wheels.
Not many people are making custom bikes exclusively
out of carbon fibre, but these guys, FiftyOne, who are based
out of Dublin, in Ireland, are doing just that.
And the way they're doing it
I think is absolutely brilliant.
So they will get custom made carbon tubes,
and then they'll fit them together in much the same
way that you might get a custom steel frame.
So the tubes are cut to length, then they're mitered,
and so they all fit together, and then, instead of being
welded or fillet-brazed, they're wrapped
with layers of prepreg carbon fibre,
and then put inside a vacuum-packed bag, basically.
So normally when you make carbon fibre you put it in a mould
and then you cure it, whereas this time, actually,
the structural integrity of the existing tubes
provide the mould and then the vacuum sucks the prepreg
onto those tubes.
Then it's cured, and then you get your custom,
carbon fibre frame.
Now I didn't know that custom saddles were a thing,
but look!
They are.
This is Grafton Saddler, who are based in Hackney,
in London, and they will take your existing saddle
and then recover it,
with pretty much anything you want.
This one really jumped out at me.
It's a nice, calf-skin leather with
excellent patina already worn in there.
Or, you could go for
stingray.
Look at that.
Now if you're one of those people that looks
at carbon bike and thinks,
"Bah, it's just come out of a mould,"
then I've got a challenge for you.
Come and look at this Tsubasa here.
Take a closer look.
And then try and say that statement again
with a straight face because,
this
you can just see how much craft has gone into this.
They've left it, the finish, completely raw,
the idea being to save weight,
but what it means, effectively, is you can actually feel
all the different layers of carbon fibre,
and they're completely exposed.
It really, really is quite, quite a creation.
We've saved
the best
'til last.
Check it out.
It is the GCN hand-built bike.
Isn't that absolutely amazing?
It's on display at the Bicycle Academy stand.
Before we look around the rest of it,
do you want to take a moment, just to admire?
There's gonna be a full video coming up very soon,
so this is more like
a sneak peek for ya.
(electric guitar playing)
Right, that's probably enough of that.
Like I said, there's gonna be a full video on this beauty
coming up very soon.
For now, let's take a quick look
at some of the other graduates from the Bicycle Academy.
We've got Quirk Cycles here.
That is an absolutely beautiful looking, All-Road bike,
and then behind it,
look at this.
This is a bike from Dear Susan, and yes,
there are real, live fish
in the display stand there.
And he is an artist that wanted to learn how to build bikes
and now makes bikes for a living, as well as art.
And you can see the two are kind of combined here,
in this quite whimsical bike.
And, he tells this, that it's a bike for puttering
around on, it's not for going fast,
and actually it harks back
to the early 60s when pioneers in the UK
decided they wanted to ride off road.
So it's clearly not a mountain bike
but it is a bike for riding off road very slowly.
That's amazing, isn't it?
Well, unfortunately that brings us to an end,
this all too brief look at the Bespoke Show.
I think you'll agree there's been some amazing things here.
I've just been told that I'm not actually allowed
to take this bike,
just yet,
so it's gonna be quite a long weekend waiting to
get my hands on it.
A really long weekend.
Anyway, nevermind.
Do make sure you subscribe to GCN.
It's very simple, just click on the globe,
and then if you want to see more content,
well why not check out parts one and two
of our How to Make a Bike Frame series,
where you get to see that bike
being put together.