English Cycles | Custom Bicycles

Posted by Rob on Dec 5, 2023

PACE RC-100 Homage

I picked up my first bike magazine in October 1990. It was Mountain Biking UK, and they tested two ‘superbikes’ – a Fat Chance Team Comp, and a Pace RC100. Two very different bikes, both highly rated. Whilst I feel that I have built a few bikes similar to the Fat Chance – high performance fully rigid steel mountain bikes (and I got to meet Chris Chance at the MADE show this year!)...

Posted by Rob on Nov 17, 2023

Ali’s road bike

Ali was able to come to the shop in the spring to be fitted. We started with the fitbike setup to match his previous bike, then gradually made adjustments to improve his comfort. Once the position was confirmed, I was able to design his bike to meet the requirements for fit, handling and performance. The frame features a custom-butted integrated seatmast, with a modified internal-wedge seatpost enabling...

Posted by Rob on Oct 15, 2023

Ash’s FGC

This build is a bit of a different take on the Folding Gravel Concept layout. It uses the same folding frame design, but with some adjustments for larger tire clearance (namely using a wide format T47 BB shell), and with cantilever brakes. Built around 44mm tires, there is plenty of clearance both at the frame and the Ritchey fork. The Paragon sliding dropouts allow for two different functions –...

Posted by Rob on Sep 20, 2023

Coz’s road bike

I have had the privilege of working with Coz on two previous bikes – a travel/gravel build and an all-road bike. To complete the set of dropbar machines, he asked me to build him a pure road bike this time. We settled on designing around 30mm tires, running on the (25mm internal) Enve 3.4 wheels. Coz has found the extra bottle mounts on his other bikes very useful, so we did something similar here,...

Posted by Rob on Sep 12, 2023

Nick’s stainless adventure frameset

Nick asked me to build him a frame suitable for bikepacking, with clearance for up to 50mm tires. We settled on using the Enve Adventure fork, which has the required clearance plus triple mounts for additional carrying capacity. Nick chose stainless steel for his bike, which is joined with silver fillet brazing. He also asked if I could do ‘fastback’ style seatstays, where the stays join the...

Posted by Rob on Sep 1, 2023

David’s all-road bike

David asked me to build him a lightweight road bike for climbing, that could also serve duty for some gravel riding with a tire change. We settled on designing around 32mm tires, whilst allowing clearance for 38s. An Allied carbon fork up front provides that clearance and is mated to the frame with a custom English headset that maintains a slim headtube whilst fitting the tapered fork steerer. The rear...

Posted by Rob on Aug 19, 2023

Phil’s road bike

Phil asked me to build him a light, comfortable bike with confident handling. He had a good fit that I could design around, and requested an integrated seatmast and matching custom stem. We choose to go with a US-made carbon fork from Allied, which mates to the frame via a custom English headset that fits the tapered steerer without using an oversize headtube. There is a modified Thomson seatpost for...

Posted by Rob on Aug 7, 2023

Jai’s FGC (Folding Gravel Concept)

Jai was able to come by the shop for a fitting, to get him seated comfortably for some overseas adventures with his travel bike. With some occasional knee pain mentioned we went to shorter cranks and made sure there was plenty of (low) gear range. The bike is built to clear 700Cx40 tires, with the Ritchey fork in front providing similar clearance, along with triple mounts for extra bottles or luggage if...