Collaboration with John Smedley

I recently teamed up with my friends from The Lift Agency who wanted a track bike building for one of their client John Smedley. The bike turned out super awesome! The bike is now on display in their flagship store on Brook Street in the west end of London.

My personal favourite part of  this project was being able to collaborate with a British brand which holds such heritage. John Smedley date back to 1784 and were only the second company to have a factory for producing everything in-house in the entire world and in any industry.

It was the first track bike I had built in a while so it was super exciting, nobody dislikes a slick track bike! A huge thanks must go out to Brooks for their help with the project.

                          

Jessica's Road Bike

Here is Jessica's road bike. It is built from a combination of Reynolds 631 and Columbus SL with Stainless Llewellyn lugs. I love the modern feel of this bike, even though it has a lot of classic visuals. Jessica has struggled with fixing a bike with a comfortable fit, she likes a racing style bike but has always found off the shelf bikes to be much too long and always felt far too stretched out.

We made sure that the frame would accept mudguards and a pannier rack, so Jessica will be able to utilise the bike as well as fly up some big hills!

I am super happy with the outcome of this bike and so is Jessica.

Photos by Kayti Peschke

Made In England

Kayti and I were approached earlier this year by Matthew Sowter to be involved in the making of a book focusing on the craft of frame building right here on British soil. We travelled the whole of England from farm yards to central London visiting, interviewing and photographing the best England has to offer. It has been a wonderful experience visiting everyones workshops, getting to see where such an amazing bunch of creations are born. Made In England found it's name as nearly every frame builder in the country had a Record vice, which all have Made In England cast into the side and being that the vice is where we as frame builder spend a good 80% of our time, it just made sense.

Here is the promotional video Kayti made for the self published book which is due for release in October this year.

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Vulpine bike and summer cycling fete.

I was approached a while back by Nick Hussey, he wanted a bike that he could ride comfortably despite his bad back. At the time Nick was not far from launching his clothing brand Vulpine so it made perfect sense to brand it up and display it at the recent Vulpine Cycling Fete in Balham. Everyone one had a super fun day, it was a pretty relaxed day for everyone involved (apart from Nick who just about had a nervous breakdown, sorry Nick but I found it pretty funny haha)!! We all had a good laugh, showed a few bikes, met a few friends and all the usual summer fete beer, buns and charity money! I am not sure how much was raised all together, but I offered up a custom built stem and a t-shirt which sold a fair bit above the normal asking price at £215 so I must thank Steve Lewington hugely for his generous bid!!

Kayti and I also raised a bit of Charity money ourselves, selling t-shirts, a raffle and and Kayti's homemade cupcakes. We made a total of £135 which will be heading to the RSPCA for the fury friends!

The bike itself has a upright riding position, a whole bunch of hand carved and hand polished stainless steel. It is constructed using Columbus Spirit front triangle for a lightweight and sporty feel, this is mixed with XCr chain stays for convenience of no paint chipping from chain strikes and a Columbus life S-bend seat stay to soak up some bumps. The bike also has a custom made 4130 stem and a custom headset spacer for that smooth transition. Built with Campagnolo Athena silver group set I would say that over all Nick has a light, fast, super comfy, ultra classy bike!! Not to mention another stunning paint job in Vulpine green with my ever growing love for a pearl coat over the top!

Photos by Kayti Peschke

The Rapha Continental

I am a little late with this to say the least but here is the first leg of the Rapha Continental project that I am super privileged to be a part of! ENJOY!

Charlie's cross bike

Charlie is my first returning customer, he came back wanting a bike that he could take off road, in the woods and on trails etc, a cross bike basically. Charlie also wanted the option to stick some light bags and mudguards to have the option to do a little 'plastic' touring. Charlie wanted reliable brakes in all weather and riding conditions so we opted to go down the disc route. Charlie has already had a couple of rides out on the new steed and has loved every second of it so far. The plan was to get this bike dirty, but easy to clean back down and have as little cables as possible open to the elements, so I ran every cable possible internally, keeping the overall look of the bike super clean. Another thing that Charlie wanted was a fillet brazed frame but also loved the lugs and teardrop seat stay caps on his first bike, so I mixed the two options and gave him some top tube and down tube sleeves at the head tube and the same seat stays as last time. Finally, Charlie was never too keen on the original head badge so a carved up some stainless and made a feather based on the New Zealand All Blacks feather at Charlie's request.

vulpine summer fate

feather cycles will be in attendance at this wonderful summer event by vulpine on jubilee weekend, somehow...... I am building a rather special bike to coincide with it.