Craftsmanship

[Scott Brady]

I am doing a little research on expedition class bicycles, and am incredibly impressed by the quality and attention to detail of some of these frame builders.

This one from Ahearne is quite beautiful:

It is enjoyable to see the changes in the bicycling industry since my first century race nearly 20 years ago.

Any other contributions?

 

[chris_the_wrench]

I'm very happy to see that as companies such as Trek and Specialized continue to, or have already, moved production to far away factories there are still local guys producing beautiful bikes. If your into that kind of stuff you should definitely check out:

http://www.handmadebicycleshow.com/index_01.htm

 

[Scott Brady]

If your into that kind of stuff you should definitely check out:

http://www.handmadebicycleshow.com/index_01.htm

The show catalog is on my desk right now

 

[chris_the_wrench]

I've been banging around on a Surly Crosscheck for a number of years as my "touring bike", but I've been looking to move to a more traditional touring geometry and have been leaning towards the IF Independence(steel).

http://www.ifbikes.com/OurBikes/Road/Steel_Independence/

 

[1speed]

I really like this guy's stuff. http://www.pereiracycles.com/
And I REALLY want one of these. http://www.pereiracycles.com/gallery/showcruiser/index.php :Wow1:

Also check out http://www.quiringcycles.net/index2.htm , I have two of these http://www.qballbikes.com/index.html that were built by him and they are very nice!

 

[ntsqd]

Not specifically a Touring/Exp machine, but I like what Curtis Inglis has done with the Retrotec line.

 

[trailsurfer]

I have two custom Titanium bikes made by http://www.willitsbikes.com/

These are beautiful bikes and I believe Titanium is the ultimate material to use for durability, weight, and feel.

One of my bikes is a hard tail Titanium 29er Trail King that I rode/raced in the BC Bike Race, a 7 day mountain bike stage race last year. (333 miles, over 42,000 feet of climbing)

The other bike is a custom Monster X Titanium bike made for expedition riding. It has a custom Willits steel fork and braze-on's for panniers etc... .

As soon as I can figure out how to post pic's, I will.

Let me know if you have any questions or would like suggestions, I have done a ton of research on these types of bikes, as well as a lot of buying and selling to find the right bike(s). And best of all, I ride them all as often as I can.

Another great builder is Crumpton, I know him and he builds great bikes. I believe he has won the Handmade bike show twice in the last few years. He only builds with Carbon Fiber. His web site is www.crumptoncycles.com


Also, a great option would be Serotta. You can have them custom build a Titanium, steel, or TI/Carbon expedition bike. I currently ride the Ottrott SE as my primary road bike. Fantastic bike and hand made in the USA. I have had the bike for 4 years, the longest I have ever owned a road bike, and I have no plans to replace it. Their web site is www.serotta.com

By the way, great to meet you at the Expo. I had a great time.

 

[mcgovski]

I have been lucky enough to race on a few of the great custom bikes. here are soe of my impressions
-Della Santa that was painted as a LeMond.
-Serrotta's steel/carbon (training bike) and Ti/carbon (race bike when I raced for Sierra Nevada Professional cycling team.
- Kelly bikes for cyclocross one year.
- and Now I get to race on a Rock Lobster.
http://rocklobstershop.blogspot.com/

I have to say that I was terribly disappointed with the Serrotta's, after going through their fit system my bikes ended up being way to tall and could not make a turn at speed, It was a dangerous bike. ( I have been racing since 1978, so I kind of know what I am doing). They were not flexible in making the bike any different for me...I thought is this really custom if the builder is this rigid? I mean the bike could not turn at speed!

The Kelly's always had something "irregular" about them...like 133mm rear spacing...Chris Kelly would call that art...hmmmm. (makes putting a wheel in a bit difficult, a road bike is 130mm and a mountain bike is 135mm)

Della Santa was awesome. precision, speed and art all wrapped up into one, I wish I still had that bike.

Rock Lobster. AWESOME... Paul Sadoff is a true craftsman. In addition to being a frame builder, he also teaches a class at United Bicycle Institute on frame building. He is the man

I guess my point is, find the right builder for you for custom, and pay attention to the little things, not the pretty things. Fancy lugs and swooping tubes dont do you a lot of good in the bike gets fork chatter and handles like crap. Especially if you are going to carry panniers, a lot of these frame builders have never ridden a bike with bags on it...

just my $.02

 

[Christophe Noel]

Having been knee deep in the bike biz all my life, I've always noticed a curious dichotomy - there are bikes built for extended touring that never seem to actually do any touring (or even do it well) and there's an amazing number of people doing astounding epic voyages on the most basic of machines. What the heck am I saying.....MOST of the impressive bike trips journaled on the web and in publications were done on simple machines.

29er and I have a couple friends that have toured tens of thousands of miles on and off the pavement from the Arctic to near the Equator on $500 mountain bikes with carefully selected accessories.

Scott, during your search I hope you also look at those bikes that aren't designed to just be chi-chi eye candy for the would-be, but never will-be, adventure cyclist. There are certain stalwarts of touring like the Koga-Miyata which is the Defender 110 of touring. The Trek 520 is without a doubt the most traveled bike, not too far off from a Toyota Tacoma in terms of accessibility. There's also a new crop of bikes within reach of the average pocketbook like the Salsa Fargo. That's a great machine.

This all said, the hands down best ever bike for even the most ambitious of tours is......

...the one hanging in your garage. The beauty of bike touring is it can be done on anything. No need to sock away three months salary on a fancy rig.

 

[sleeoffroad]

These guys are next door to us in Golden CO. Single speed with belt drive

 

[Christophe Noel]

Funny you post a photo of a Spot bike. I too think those babies are pretty awesome.

From a trip 29er and I did last fall:


Greg at 12,500 feet on The Highline Trail way above Durango. I do mean waaaay above durango. While I'm sure guys with panniers and racks have been there before, I would rather stick my hand in my spokes than think of pushing a 75 pound beast to those elevations. We had less than 15 pounds on our bikes and that was perfect. Any more and it would have really sucked. This was day three. Keep in mind, we slept in a tent, ate hot meals and brought along a few camp comforts. I'm not real sure why guys are still lugging 75 pounds on their bikes. Backpackers are getting their loads down to sub 25 with ease. Why would a cyclist need 75 pounds??


Simple does work really well.

 

[RusM]

http://www.curtlo.com/

I am kind of partial to these guys as they are local and have really reasonable prices compared to some of the other builders you could go with.

 

[DaveInDenver]

The Trek 520 is without a doubt the most traveled bike, not too far off from a Toyota Tacoma in terms of accessibility.

So true. My wife's utility bike is a 1987 Trek 560, the cool aqua one. Total cost was $0, a dumpster find. Thing still had it's original Trek Matrix tires, dry rotted though. I have it strung up with white housing, looks positively retro southern California, dude. Reynolds 531, investment cast lugs, totally a cool bike. For the time being she wanted to be a single speed since she rides it to school daily, less for her to think about. But I carefully saved all the original 105 parts to put it back next year when she's done.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Why would a cyclist need 75 pounds?

Depending on trip type, my outfit can sometimes get up near the 40ish lbs range. Late fall riding when I can't get by without some real camp clothes, for example. For me it's a matter of running what I have. Some people don't have unlimited budgets and I prefer to push around a pig rather than do nothing.

For example, my Class 5 sleeping bag is better than 25 years old now (I've personally had it almost 10 years now) is easily twice as heavy as the modern ultra light stuff. But it's been paid for a dozen times over and, well, it's lasted 20+ years without blowing out. It gets a complete down R&R about every 5 or so years and keeps on chugging. But I'd bet the shell alone weighs more than a modern 800 fill wonder.

I guess you do whatcha gotta. Someday I will have the money to get a bunch of GoLite junk. For now I try and keep weight down by making penny stoves and doing with as little as possible. Stuff like my old PuR Hiker is a relic, but it's what I got. Heck, I just got my first ever down jacket this spring. So up until then I had to drag around a bulky, heavy Polartec 300 jacket. Shrug.

 

[Christophe Noel]

For me it's a matter of running what I have. Some people don't have unlimited budgets and I prefer to push around a pig rather than do nothing.

g.

It's really funny you mention that. When we did a chunk of the Colorado trail, we actually did it in part to explore how inexpensively such a tour could be put together. We used a mix of high end custom bags and off the shelf "improvised" options to see what the contrast was regarding performance. It was interesting. We used the least expensive Camelbak to carry the light and bulky stuff ($40 on sale). Sleeping bags (REI sale - Vaude bags $40) were mounted to our bars via a very inexpensive option, an OR Hydrosac stuff sack ($12). We cooked on a $35 stove. My rear rack was a converted bottle holder ($18). The rest of the stuff was pretty regular riding gear. When I put that in contrast to fully loaded touring, we were super cheap. Racks and panniers run $300-$500 for a good set before you put anything in them! A clunky BOB trailer will set you back $300. So, again the less is more thing made for a cheaper set up.

A good touring kit can be assembled without breaking the bank or sacrificing comfort or performance.

One thing we continually encountered was the perception we were skipping creature comforts in the name of being light. One guy even said, "so do you just plan to sleep in the dirt?" We were more than comfy, even sleeping on a 2.5" sleeping pad ($45).