Custom Bicycles.
 

i keep gravitating towards them. i don't know what it is. the cool (sometimes lugged) hand-built frames or maybe: riding a bike that isn't stamped out for the masses?.

i ride plenty, so in that aspect i can justify the purchase :)

the shopping process is kinda daunting. fitting, the cost!!, the waiting list, etc.
i want a gravel bike. :D



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1525969059.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1525969089.jpg

Those Speedvagens are cool. They have a semi-custom program now as well.

Here's my custom, built a long time back by a guy who doesn't build frames any longer, just tooling. Just had this refinished by Tom Kellogg this winter.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4760/...573f5af4bd.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4663/...eecae5679c.jpg

I'd look and see if you have any local framebuilders who run classes.

A friend of mine took a framebuilding class, and got to make his own bike. He had a lot of fun and ended up with a beautiful bike which he rides all the time. Polished lugs and such. Looked like a high end steel colnago.

Check Scott Quiring out of https://www.facebook.com/QuiringCyclesLlc/

His TI welds are fantastic. He built my current 29er custom to my needs/wants.

On the wait list for a second frame.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1525970755.jpg

I'm not a bike guy, but that's a beauty, very sleek. Granted, it might be tough to ride with no pedals which probably lends a bit to the sleek appearance in the photo, so a bit of a cheat but still very cool.

I have a custom bike made for me during the mid 90s from a local fabricator. I rode it sometimes but its just another steel bike. The fit is very similar to any other off the shelf bike, but the ride quality was ever so slightly better. Its stiffer because I like them that way and that was my only request. I think modern carbon bikes within the same price range to your custom jobs are a better deal all the way around. I am bias, only because I think carbon is a superior material. I do think these custom bikes look so much better only its because the tub are thinner and its steel instead of plastic.

admittedly, my thought process is not steep with logic.

i dont want a race bred road bike. i want just schooch more comfort. something, i wouldnt mind taking a detour off a well graded gravel road just to see "what's over that rise"

i've ridden a Rivendell Rodeo a bunch of times. those guys just let me take the bike..return it whenever. (my wife bought a bike from them) it was VERY comfy. maybe too comfy.. but damn, it was fun and confidence inspiring. the tightest u-turns of my life. it is a good bike. more grassroots that i would want, i think. my next bike will have disc brakes.

hence it has me looking at the myriad of custom builders we have available.

I clicked on this thread just to see what Vash is up to...

That there is a "specialty" bike....their downhill version ;)

I have a Vendetta custom that I bought secondhand about 6 years ago. Once I converted it to 650b (32mm tires with fenders), it became just the bike I wanted. It's comfortable all afternoon, lots of fun and begs to be ridden more. And with a fender removal and tire swap, it makes a great dirt bike too.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1525983518.jpg

I have a hard time swallowing the price tag on modern bikes. Part of the reason why I have a stable full of vintage bikes.

Much of the riding I do is "mixed surface" and the sort of thing that people buy gravel bikes for. Truth is that gravel bike is just the industry trying to sell you a new machine. You can turn most any decent rigid or hardtail mountain bike into a gravel bike with some narrow road tires. Conversely you can turn any good older road bike into a gravel bike by fitting some wider range gears and 28c or 32c tires. Today's super specialized 12lbs racing bikes need not apply.

I took my old 1993 Breezer mountain bike and turned it into a gravel bike for more course work with some drop bars and narrow 1.5" road tires...its a "monster cross" sort of machine. My 1979 steel framed Guerciotti Italian Stallion got some 28c tires and new gearing so I can climb hills without blowing my knees up.

I did indulge myself with a Moots YBB mountain bike 2 years back. Fully custom and with a professional bike fitting. Incredible machine, and I have looked at their gravel bike. The modifications to the Guerciotti were about 1/10 the cost of a new Moots (which will run about the cost of a decent motorcycle)

so true..but i have a hankering for disc brakes. it's a process going on in my brain. again, not perfectly logical.

I’m sure this will be upside down, but here is my Breezer. Had this bike for over 20 years and its lived 3 lives: first as a mountain bike, then a city bike with fenders and Nitto Albatross bars, and today with drop bars, bar end shifters and narrow road tires its a gravel grinder. Nimble and fast and I keep up with dudes on new gravel bikes from Giant, Salsa, Niner, etc.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1525985986.jpg

...I think we may be brothers

DeSalvo is local to us and a FANTASTIC builder... Steel and alot of very, very nice titanium. With or without disc brakes.

https://www.desalvocycles.com/

angela

I don't know man. Custom built gravel bikes are a total fad. A bad mountain bike and a bad road bike. It doesn't do anything well, unless you are going to race cyclocross, I'd go with something else ...

If you want to have fun with a nice piece of equipment that you can customize and that also rides well, I would recommend you go with a classic or modern classic. Build up an old steel frame etc.

I am happy with my choice of the Colnago C50 I bought 2 years ago on CL with the help of my PPOT brethen. Fraction of the cost of any custom or even cheaper than a decent new road bike. It was one of the best bikes money could buy 10+ years ago and it turns heads all day long (by the people that know bikes). I had it fitted, put a new handlebar and saddle, and I am tearing it up in style.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1525996474.jpg

Next thing you are telling us is that you are growing a handle bar mustache and buying tweed knickerbockers ...

G

My bike and I are probably 250 lbs dressed and loaded up, throwing myself down a 3500 foot mountain. I never felt the rim brakes weren't cutting it. Unless you ride in the rain, disk brakes are just a way to add weight. They also will not allow you to go with a classic frame ...

G

I'm fortunate enough to live in a county with 1 (one) stoplight and more gravel roads than paved roads. Gravel bikes are at home here. No traffic and friction between drivers/cyclist, and no off camber wet roots to ditch over on a mtb.

For me the fun of the gravel bike frame is that you really can come up with a unique ride/build. Mine is a trek 930 I found in a garbage can, mounted 700c rims, and as much road stuff as possible. It has a campagnolo record bb with a 102mm spacing for roadie q-factor, and ultra low gearing for climbing some steep grades.

I always chuckle at myself when people talk about disk brakes and like to think my v-brakes are essentially disk brakes with 700c rotors that weight less, but I understand that a lot of people are getting disk. Seems like every road bike these days has a set. Not me though. Even in the mountains, I still am not burning out rims, and wet weather braking has never been a real issue. If I was building a road bike, I would go all CF like 171 said, but for gravel, or touring, I would consider a steel framed "one off" build in a heartbeat.

Gravel bikes slow? Here's one video on road. I thought it was with my road bike, but then I saw myself going after potholes. I will upload some more gravel bike goodness soon.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yr9JrUVHZpk" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

another-

https://youtu.be/FoX0X5enBoM

and another-

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/52HIjP9fiWY" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1525997279.jpg

When my daughter was racing in the late 70's and through the 80's she had a pair of bikes made by Bill Holland Cycles in San Diego. One was a road racer the other a track bike and they were the first very small frame (she was 5'0") that could use regular sized wheels. She won a bunch of state and national championships on those and I still have the black lines on our short side of the house concrete slab where I would measure her roll out.

I think Bill is still making steel frames and also now has titanium (I had one, very light) and some carbon models.

Bill Holland is a hell of a builder. Joe Bell painted lots of his frames. He painted one of my old frame (not a Holland). I would kill to have a Holland ti bike. Instead, I bought a Merlin Superlight on the used market sometime ago. Since the the new ti frames back then was way out of reach for a racing cyclist or bum, I raced Cannondales at 450 bucks a frame discounted from my club. If I crash it, it cheap enough to just buy another.

Vash, If you plan to fly down lots of long mountain sides, then by all means, get the disc brakes. They are far superior compare to side pull road bike caliper. That said, I an straightly a road rider, and I really don't used my brakes much unlike mountain biking bombing down 6-8 miles of crazy down hill. Even then when I did it, the Shimano V-brakes, like Leaky said, were more then sufficient but no way come close to a disc system. Plus I dislike the way they look.

Sound like you are happier with a sport touring gravel bike. One with a longer top tube and a slight longer wheelbase compare to a true road racing bike.

While I agree that the $10k gravel bike is a fad of sorts, in a world of super light and disposable plastic frames that can’t survive a crash, I am happy there is renewed interest in bicycles that are tough and built to last and more multi purpose. I do a lot of mixed surface riding in Bucks County PA. We have nice paved roads, awesome gravel roads, and a gravel and grass toepath along the Delware Canal. You don’t see anybody in these spots on their Cervelo. An old lugged steel italian road bike that has clearance for 28 or 30c tires works great though.

Cliff-
I’m right there with you. Want want want a gravel bike too. Hard to think the same way about rim brakes after riding discs. Hoping to get rid of a couple and replace with one to cover the bases. One of the “Old” is a Waterford. Richard Schwinn fitted me in their factory. Believe it was the second year of production, post Paramount days. Nice bike, but collecting dust. Have been riding a Specialized Sirrus for the last 11 or so years. Great bike, but would like something a little more compliant and more hand positions. Thinking of a Specialized Diverge or Trek Checkpoint in carbon.
The custom stuff is gorgeous, but prices (even factory bikes) are getting ridiculous.

Forgot to include pic.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1526006883.jpg

I have broken steel frames in crashes and some of my carbon frames survive. It really depends on how its crashed. Carbon last a long time if taken care of. It doesn't fatigue like a steel or alum frame.

Why not ride a ti frame in your roads in PA. That's a far superior frame materials in those conditions.

There's a certain engineering that can be built into a frame with carbon that steel, ti, or alum can't achieve. I just think there are lots of old timers who just doesn't like new technology. That's said, I raced on many steel frames in my racing days and crashed a good number of them. I still think they are the best looking by far compared to a carbon frame. When I hauling ass with my tongue out, I could care less what the hell the frame or color look like.

Gravel bike a fad? I vaguely remember roadies calling mountain bikes a fad.

What about cyclocross? That stuck around.

Besides, with the increasing amount of bikers getting smacked by cars, it seems getting off the road and riding a smooth Jeep trail is a good strategy.

You say fad; I say evolution. :)

Heck with what people say. Go and have some fun. I think I would dislike riding on rough trails (rock going into your shoes and such), only because I have never done it but only ridden on mtb trails so I think its very similar. As a matter of fact, I hate paved bike trails due to too many pedestrians and other cyclist. I deal the traffic, its not too bad and I am used to it. I'm not sure if trails bikes use electronic shifting. If so, you must have it or at least look into it. I love it, PDK on your bike man.

@look 171, I would love to have the matching Moots Ti framed gravel grinder to compliment my Moots MTB. Ti is awesome. I recognize the benefits of carbon, but for me I like the ride of metal frames. My ‘79 Guerciotti is comfortable for all day rides, gorgeous and classy in lugged Columbus SL steel.

I was seriously eyeballing building a 2nd Moots for gravel purposes. But given I could modify one of my vintage machines for a few hundred dollars, vs. $10k for a shiny new Moots I couldn’t rationalize the extra cost. The Moots would certainly be better, but over 10x better? 10x more fun to ride? No ****** way!

@Vash, I don’t think the concept of a light, fast rolling, handling bike that can cover both paved and unpaved roads is a fad itself. The fad part is the idea that you need a “gravel” bike. This kind of bike used to just be a “regular” road bike, or perhaps a “touring” bike.

Lots of wisdom here. One of the best parts of the "groader" bike fad is that prices are way down in the secondary market for anything that's not disc and doesn't take 32's. Canti brake cross bikes? They're giving them away, relatively, even stuff like Moots.
OTOH, builders like Firefly and Mosaic are doing some very cool modern ti that's super versatile, so if you want modern custom, you don't have to be locked into a "gravel" ride.
And there's production stuff out there for half the cost of custom that will do all of the above. Given that the industry is concerned about declining sales and distracted drivers, swiss army knife bikes are going to be a focus.

https://cnj.craigslist.org/bik/d/trek-carbon-aluminum/6561931302.html

Here's a carbon bike that I would mount up with 28c tires and ride dirt roads in a heartbeat. $350! If the picture is accurate, no way is this a 55cm...looks like a 48cm or smaller. Too small for me otherwise I'd go buy it this weekend at $350.

This kind of stuff is why I can't currently bring myself to drop Ducati motorcycle money on a custom bicycle again. Don't get me wrong, I love my Moots MTB...its like a piece of jewelry.

Not for me. More bang for buck, more R&D, more engineering- off the shelf.

it really is just the frame that is custom. i want some type of metal..leaning towards humble steel. how much R/D do you envision with a steel frame? it's store bought tubing and some kickass welder with possible some artsy lugs..

the rest of the package is "off the shelf".

This thread has me motivated to convert my old thin steel mountain bike...:)

You buy a custom frame because you want a custom frame. In reality, I really don't think it makes a huge difference. I may be just a tiny little more comfortable. When I was in Italy, I wanted Masi (son, who's a master builder learned from old man Masi) to build me a custom frame. He measured me up and gave me specs on the size and all that good stuff. you know what? Its exactly the same as an odd the shelf bike I had ridden since I was 16. The only difference wa the top tube was 5mm difference. Hell, I have had bikes that were 10mm difference in top tube length. I still rode them all day long and got used to them with the first week.

Find yourself a few year old cross bike and go out and have fun beating on that thing. Ti would be better and hold up better in a crash.

This is a very wise post, IMHO and is why I am saying gravel bikes are a fad.

It is okay if you like something for its looks and want to go with the trend. But don't pretend it is a necessity because the bike industry suddenly found "the perfect bike".

1x11 geartrain is another thing you should have on the gravel bike!

Here is a nice bike. It is pretty nifty! :D

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lynskey-Helix-Sport/152984767671?hash=item239e9a4cb7:g:kR4AAOSwwNRa05P t

G

There aint no 28mm tires that are gonna to fit in that thing so forget about riding those cross tires with that frame

Again, no 28 mm in that unless its got a ton of room. Plus, I don't trust those early bonded frames especially if you are going to beat it on gravel roads. That reminds me of my well, Look Kg171. I love that frame, great for all day long in the saddle but soft. I was lucky that frame held together pretty after three crashes and a few years of beating on it. I am not nice to equipment

@ look 171, I haven't encountered a road bike from the era of that Trek or earlier that won't accept 28c tires. I have 3 bonded Vitus frames from the 80's through the early 90's. All of them take 28c tires no problem.

My 1979 Guerciotti is on 28c, no problem. While there aren't many available, I am sure I could get 30c tires on there, and possibly 32c.

I considered trying out these 30c tires, but don't know enough about them to drop the coin:

Strada Bianca PRO

This place is a great source for tires and items to turn your old road bike or old thin steel MTB into a mixed surface machine:

https://www.compasscycle.com/product-category/components/tires/

Further, having used the Compass tires, I know they are made by Panaracer. The Panaracer Gravel king tires are virtually identical to what Compass offers, but are less cost.

https://www.thebikesmiths.com/products/panaracer-gravelking-700c?variant=44543411474&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7pm8mYu A2wIVhFqGCh198g6AEAQYBCABEgLQovD_BwE

These are lightweight and high threadcount fast rolling folding clincher tires that are designed for more rugged use than racing tires.

https://photos.smugmug.com/By-Land/T...DSC_1033-M.jpg