Custom Bicycles
A Few Examples of Custom Track Bikes
A bike that fits you and your personal style
We have built a great deal of great looking functional bikes since we started in 2004. Quite a few of the builds (that we later get asked about) are fixed gears. The elegance of a single speed with the potent style of our customers makes for some pretty ridiculously great bicycles.
SCOTT’S FIRST CUSTOM TRACK BUILD
A gentleman heard about how friendly we were and he had an idea… An old school bike that made his stomach hurt to look at. He had a tight budget and a great idea, so we figured out how we could work together.
We called up Black Sheep Fabrication in Ft. Collins because they work really well with complicated directions and bends in tubing. We had a picture and some tweaks of what we wanted. Black Sheep came back with a quote and a drawing that stunned all parties. So, we went for it.
We picked out parts that would accent the frame, while not adding a great deal of money to the overall deal. The wheelset was handbuild by Scott and the parts were selected based on value and keeping with a retro (kind of) feel.
The bars in this picture were short lived, but they were specifically to give the look of the picture that the customer fell in love with.
This bike came out lighter than anyone would have imagined for the price.
I NEED MY BIKE AS STYLISH AS I AM (DAMMIT!)
Every now and then a customer comes along that we learn to love from lots of visits and conversations. They walk in and POW, they change our day for the better with a simple phrase: “I want you to build me a bike like nothing anyone has ever seen”. We then get teary eyed as they give us the feelings they already have associated with their new yet-to-be-built bike. We get ourselves together and start showing them our ideas to make this bike a reality.
Fast forward a few weeks (or months in this case, since lots of parts were bleeding edge new) and the fun really begins. The idea for this bike was to make a bike with as big of a personality as its owner. We didn’t want to make it over the top expensive, just over the top. The wheels were the most important part of the build in this case. We build the wheels around the idea of HUGE. The biggest hubs we could find were used in conjunction with high quality deep deep deep profile rims. The remaining parts on the bike were selected for their gold color and value. We think you will agree that this bike is great looking, in the best way.
AS A REWARD, MYSELF IS BUYING MYSELF THIS BIKE
This bike represented kicking the car habit, making a huge leap in healthy choices and a new sense about life.
We worked on this bike for only a short amount of time, because it was a clear idea from the start. The paint was taken care of locally, the wheels build in house, the rest of the parts were selected for longevity for a serious commuter.
The only hard part was the cranks:
They are a strange type of crank (only ever seen the one set so far) that didn’t have the spindle hole cut all the way through, so we were limited in choices of pedals. Eventually, in the spirit of customization, these cranks made it over to a fixie conversion that had to have white cranks. It involved a great deal of carbon fibre and white industries ENO eccentric hubs… but that is another story.
This bike took one of our favorite customers into a whole new world of cycling and he loves it.
Jay says:
Great Custom Bikes!
Paul Patzkowsky says:
The double top tube on the Black Sheep frame reminds me of an Ivers Johnson frame that I once had. Ivers Johnson also used the curved tube at the top. Very nice.