English Cycles | Custom Bicycles

Posted by Rob on Mar 13, 2023

Cynthia’s road bike

Cynthia came to me to gain more comfort on her bike. We started with a blank slate, using the fit bike to determine a position that would work for her, which I then designed around to create a bike that would offer reassuring handling with no toe-wheel overlap. To aid smaller hands we went with hydraulic disc brakes and electronic shifting – with the gearing set to be more forgiving, with a 30/46...

Posted by Rob on Feb 21, 2023

Brandon’s gravel bike

Brandon asked me to build him a capable drop-bar bike with modern features – an integrated seatmast, fully hidden hoses, wireless shifting, 1x drivetrain and one-piece bar-stem. After working with a fitter locally, Brandon and I spent some time making sure we had his contact points precisely located (knowing we wouldn’t have any adjustment once the integrated front end was assembled!), then I...

Posted by Rob on Feb 15, 2023

Harper’s road bike

Harper asked me to build him a road bike; not for racing, but optimised for his position and providing comfort and a responsive but stable ride. We talked through all the options and he settled on an integrated seatmast with an internal-wedge adjustable cap. Harper expressed a preference for the aesthetic of round tubes, so the tube shaping is limited to a taper ovalisation of the toptube and the oval...

Posted by Rob on Feb 6, 2023

Craig’s all-road bike

The definitions of type of bike seem to get more numerous and more blurred…. Feels to me that there is just a wide range of ‘road’ bikes – where the definition of road depends on where you ride! So this is Craig’s road bike, designed around 30-35mm tires with room to add fenders. Craig liked the sleeved-with-cut-out seattube that I have done previously, so that format was used...

Posted by Rob on Jan 28, 2023

Sit’s road bike

Sit asked me to build him a classic rim-brake road bike and requested silver components where possible. He also opted for a custom steel fork and stem to match. The frame features internal routing for the gear cables and rear brake, with those controlling Campagnolo gears and Cane Creek EE brakes. Ritchey’s classic series of components provides the silver handlebar, seatpost and headset, matched by...

Posted by Rob on Jan 20, 2023

Jackie’s touring bike

Jackie is a joyful rider who clocks up a lot of miles. She has been riding a 26″ wheeled Surly, but really needed a custom build for a better fit to help avoid injuries. After doing a fit session with her, we swapped the Surly to 150mm cranks to help reduce pressure on her hips. Then I was able to design a custom bike around that crank length, making the pedal the correct height from the ground, and...

Posted by Rob on Jan 11, 2023

Dave’s road bike

Before we started his design, Dave worked with a fitter locally, and then had further remote consultation with me to come up with the best fit to use for his new bike. He decided to go with a custom steel fork to complement the frame. Both frame and fork feature 12mm thru axles with flat mount disc mounts and internal hose routing. The bike is built up with a full SRAM Red AXS groupset, rolling on Enve...

Posted by Rob on Dec 26, 2022

Richard’s stainless steel all-road bike

This might be the largest bike I have built so far! Richard is 6’4″, so definitely a good candidate for a custom bike. He asked me to build him a bike from stainless steel, for all-weather riding (so able to fit full fenders), long rides (plenty of bottle mounts) and varied terrain (very wide gear range). I was able to use a full Columbus XCR tubeset, complimented with dropouts and BB shell...