English Cycles | Custom Bicycles

Posted by Rob on Jun 8, 2019

Ken’s stainless road disc

Ken came to me with some very specific requests for his build – challenging me to figure out some firsts for me, namely a stainless steel disc brake frame, and a stainless integrated seatmast. He was able to give me a good sense of how he wanted the bike to handle, which along with his fit numbers enabled me to meet those design requirements whilst also eliminating toe overlap. As we were working on...

Posted by Rob on May 29, 2019

Johnnie’s FGC

Johnnie asked me to build him a travel bike to fit the same as his Shand, but packable for travel. So we came up with a Folding Gravel Concept design, using a US-made carbon fork from HIA Velo to allow for 40mm tires. The rear dropouts are from Bear Frame Supplies in the UK, with a 12mm thru axle and replaceable derailleur hanger. They have the shape I needed to add the FGC pivot at the top for the...

Posted by Rob on May 12, 2019

Stefan’s V3 frameset

Stefan asked for a V3 custom frame for a classic rim-brake road bike. We opted for a Columbus carbon fork, with an oversize headtube allowing for inset bearings. Internal routing is included for gear and brake cables, and Paragon Machine Works dropouts provide a direct mount hanger for the rear derailleur. The paint is by Colorworks, with Stefan coming up with a neat little ‘V3’...

Posted by Rob on May 5, 2019

Project Right #6

The latest Project Right bike features the modular hubset first used on Gary’s build. But this time with a singlespeed freewheel and front and rear disc brakes. The Gates beltdrive keeps the drivetrain quiet and smooth, with the frame design meaning no split is required for belt installation. Shimano XTR calipers are used – the rear is unmodified, but the front is adapted to a custom mount to...

Posted by Rob on Apr 21, 2019

Christine’s winter bike

I built Christine a 650C road bike years ago, which she has used for multiple super-endurance events (deca-ironman – more than once!), plus of course all the training for them. She decided it was finally time to have a dedicated training/commuting bike built, and requested something along the lines of my winter bike. The roads in New Zealand are pretty terrible with chipseal, so I suggested using...

Posted by Rob on Apr 9, 2019

Stephen’s all-road bike

“I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave……” Stephen was looking for a build similar to my pink bike – matching the position and handling of his road bike, but with clearance for 35mm tires and fenders. To achieve this the frame has a curved seattube for rear wheel clearance, and modified s-bend chainstays for tire/chainring/rotor clearance. The integrated seatmast is...

Posted by Rob on Mar 30, 2019

10th anniversary limited edition

10 years! To celebrate ten years of building custom bikes, I am offering a limited run of a classic road build, with exclusive color-matched parts, as many made-in-the-USA components as possible, and a special paint scheme. This will be strictly limited to 10 bicycles, with delivery this year (currently the waiting list is out to 2021 for full custom builds). Each individually-numbered bike will have...

Posted by Rob on Mar 23, 2019

Andres’ aero road disc

Andres from Beyond Aero asked me to build him a road bike – which seemed a simple enough request until we got into the details! He wanted to use disc brakes and have everything as integrated and aero as possible. With this in mind, Andres sent me the fork, headset bearings and stem from a BMC, the combination of which allows for the brakes hoses to run completely internally. I then had to create a...