English Cycles | Custom Bicycles

Posted by Rob on Oct 8, 2021

John’s Pinion commuter

John asked me to build him a fully equipped super-commuter, with geometry to match the position he required, and based around the Pinion 18spd gearbox. He also requested some curved tubes in the frame for a unique appearance. The fully enclosed gearbox keeps the gearing weatherproof, as does the Gates beltdrive, driving a silent-running Onyx rear hub. To keep with the no-maintenance theme (no batteries...

Posted by Rob on Sep 30, 2021

Rich’s stainless mountain bike

Quite a few firsts for me with this build! First stainless steel mountain frame, first stainless fork, first time using Paragon’s new 12mm adjustable dropouts, first time I needed to make a set of front dropouts (because there wasn’t anything suitable available). And first wheels built with Berd spokes….. Big thanks to Chris at Pacific Metal Polishing for his careful work to make it so...

Posted by Rob on Sep 17, 2021

Geoff’s ISP road frameset

Geoff asked me to create him a complete custom steel frame, fork and stem. He requested an integrated seatmast – this tube is custom butted in house and has a specially modified (with an internal wedge) Thomson seatpost which allows for adjusting the saddle height. The bike will run 1x eTap for shifting, so there was no need to provide for a front derailleur or gear cable routing. The rear brake...

Posted by Rob on Sep 4, 2021

Andy’s belt drive singlespeed road bike

Andy has been really enjoying his first bike, so he asked me to build him a singlespeed bike for his flat commute. I suggested we use the Gates Carbondrive belt drive for a clean, quiet drivetrain. Andy wanted the bike as light as possible; I suggested we also make some choices towards aerodynamics to assist on the flat route, so we have the deep Enve wheels, 3T aero fork, McFk aero handlebar and a TriRig...

Posted by Rob on Aug 21, 2021

Nicole’s road bike

Nicole wanted a well fitting, nicely riding, comfortable and fast road bike – which is what all riders want I think! She worked with a fitter locally, providing me with the numbers to design around. Building for smaller, lightweight riders is one of my favorite things as these riders are generally so underserved by production bikes (which have to be built sturdy and stiff as they don’t know...

Posted by Rob on Aug 5, 2021

Craig’s e-gravel bike

My friend Craig hasn’t been riding much for quite some time, and wanted a bike he could ride with others without getting dropped, and have confidence to go exploring without fear of how to get home! A gravel bike with electric assist was the solution for him. We looked at various motor systems before settling on the Bosch Gen 4 Speed motor with the largest capacity battery. This gives power assist...

Posted by Rob on Jul 22, 2021

An-Khang’s V3 gravel frameset

An-Khang asked me to build him a custom gravel frame with a carbon integrated seatmast and carbon headtube insert. He specified the Open U-turn fork, and requested a T47 BB and a dedicated 160mm flat mount for the rear caliper. With a dedicated single ring build, I could shape the chainstays to clear the chainring and give plenty of clearance for 45mm tires, whilst keeping the chainstays short – the...

Posted by Rob on Jul 6, 2021

Ben’s aero road disc

For Ben’s first bike we went for multi-purpose, with a 700C wheelset and a 650B set with larger volume tires. A few years on, and Ben realised he was riding the bike in 650B mode most of the time, so asked me to build him a dedicated fast road bike around the 700C Enve 4.5AR wheels. Ben experimented with his position to see if he could comfortably get a bit lower to be more aero – once we...